New Delhi:
The Council of Ministers, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nirmala Sitharaman, will resume work at their ministries from Monday, a day before the end of the lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, sources said on Saturday evening Senior officials entitled to official transports, i.e., from the rank of Joint Secretary and above, will report in as usual, sources said, adding that a third of all essential staff had to be present. Junior officials will continue to work on a rotation basis. Each ministry has also been told to plan for post-lockdown and come up with ideas to kick-start the economy.
Red, orange, and green - the colour code for traffic lights will now be used on the country's map to COVID-19 and virus-free zones, and therefore people's movement. After a meeting with at least 13 Chief Ministers on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had indicated that the lockdown will be extended - but there will be relaxations in certain areas and cases to ensure the survival of the economy as well. This is where the colour coding comes in, some of the participating Chief Ministers, including the Chief Minister of Puducherry, told the media after the meeting. The coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown has pushed the government to take the ordinance route to formulate three of the four labour codes it is planning. The codes have already been introduced in parliament. One of them - the code on wages, which clubs together the laws relating to minimum wages, bonus, equal remuneration and a few others - has already been passed. An Ordinance or executive order will bring the other three into effect.
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