Chandigarh, May 5 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday again ruled out a complete lockdown, noting that the restrictions currently in place were more stringent than the lockdown conditions in many other states, and announced a series of relaxations and relief measures to alleviate the woes of various sections of the people amid the prolonged crisis.
The relaxations include phased opening of shops, and various incentives for the housing sector, including 3-month extension in permission period of construction of plots/projects for allotments, whether private or allotted, by state urban development authorities.
Amid spiralling Covid cases, the Chief Minister ordered limiting of the number of teachers in government schools to 50 per cent, with the rest taking online classes from home. He also directed the Food Department to prepare 5 lakh additional food packets for distribution among Covid patients, to ensure that every patient individually gets a packet even where there are more than one patient in a family.