Telangana Extends Lockdown Till June 19 With Relaxations

The Telangana government on Tuesday extended the ongoing lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 by another 10 days with relaxations from 6 AM to 6 PM every day.

The present lockdown will end on June 9.

Bordering areas such as Khammam, Nalgonda and Nagarjuna Sagar among others, will continue to have relaxation up to 2 PM only, given the intensity of the number of cases daily, an official release said.

"The state cabinet has decided to extend the lockdown in Telangana for another ten days.

The cabinet also decided to give relaxation from 6 am to 5 PM during the lock down and give one-hour grace period till 6 PM for people to reach home," it said.

The cabinet instructed the police to enforce the lockdown rules strictly from 6 PM till 6 AM next day, it said.

Presently the lockdown is being relaxed every day from 6 AM to 1 PM and a grace period of one hour, up to 2 PM, for the people to reach homes.

As of June 8, Telangana has over 24,000 active COVID-19 cases.

The Cabinet also decided to immediately issue ration cards to nearly 4.50 lakh eligible people who have already applied for them.

It gave permission to set up Telangana Special Food Processing Zones in the erstwhile nine districts, except Hyderabad.

The officials were instructed to set up rice mills and other Food process industries in not less than 250 acres, the release said.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said that so far 84 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured and instructed Chief secretary Somesh Kumar and District Collectors to complete the procurement of the remaining Paddy immediately, it said.

The cabinet decided to appoint a sub-committee, headed by Finance Minister T Harish Rao, to review the situation in government hospitals, staff and other infrastructure facilities, the release said.