On Monday when government offices opened, many central canteens also started doing business. Later, the centre decided to shut down all central canteens indefinitely.
"People can maintain social distance but what is the guarantee? Moreover, in Delhi, as we have seen, the problem is it's difficult to know who is a carrier of the coronavirus as many patients are asymptomatic," a senior government officer said, explaining why the centre decided to close all canteens are departments and ministries.
According to him, the move to close all departmental canteens was taken as a preventive measure to contain the spread of COVID-19.
"It has been decided with the approval of the competent authority that all the departmental canteens in central government ministries/departments/offices shall be closed with immediate effect," the government said in an order.
"All the ministries/departments/offices are requested not to open the canteens until further orders," the government said.
The move comes as officers of the level of deputy secretary and above resumed work from Monday following the Home Ministry's guidelines on relaxing the lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
