SHILLONG, Aug 31 - The Meghalaya Government is only putting in reasonable restrictions and in no way defying the Union Ministry of Home Affairs� (MHA) directive on inter-state movement.
�Restrictions have to be there, we are not defying the Home Ministry�s directive,� Tynsong said.
Apart from vehicles carrying essential commodities to the State, besides residents and officials, the State has barred movement of people from other States.
However, the MHA has recently directed that inter-state movement should be allowed without any restrictions across all states of the country.
The State Government has placed restrictions on inter-state movement for the past few months fearing unrestricted movement of people from across the State would spike up covid cases.
Justifying the restrictions, Tynsong cited the examples of States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh where there has been a spike in the number of cases after restrictions were almost totally lifted.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that Meghalaya would not like to witness such spikes and therefore put in place reasonable restrictions to protect the residents of the State.
The State Government has further notified that it would completely shut down all entry points every first week for the next three months beginning September.
This decision was taken to ease the frontline workers at these entry points of their workload and also to sanitize these places. All these steps are being taken to control the pandemic and not let the number of positive cases go out of hand.
The State till date has 1,196 active cases. Additionally, 26 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the past 24 hours. The total recoveries have increased to 1,162. East Khasi hills district has the highest number of active cases at 854.
Meanwhile, Tynsong said that the State Government will go ahead with examinations like NEET and JEE under the direction of the Supreme Court.
Moreover, the Government has also decided to allot temporary vending zones to vendors and streets hawkers in the State Capital. �Five to six places have been identified. The deputy commissioners would notify these vending zones,� he added.
Tynsong said the State Government is seized of the plight of the street hawkers and vendors and permanent vending zones in the State Capital are being identified together with the assistance of the Urban Affairs Department.
Vendors and street hawkers who have registered with the Shillong Municipal Board and the Urban Affairs Department would be allotted spots at these yet to be identified permanent vending zones, he informed.
