The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued guidelines for the 21 days lockdown that has been announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation at 8 pm.

In this lockdown, citizens need not panic as the government guidelines have said all the essential services will be available for the citizens. Shops including ration shops (under PDS) dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder will remain operational.

Banks, insurance offices, and ATMs will remain operational in this times period.

The guidelines also said the delivery of all essential goods, including food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment through e-commerce will remain operational.

“All the offices of Government of India, it’s Autonomous/ Subordinate Offices and Public Corporations shall remain closed. Offices of State/Union Territory governments, their autonomous bodies, corporation etc shall also remain closed,” the guidelines said.

However, there are exceptions to this closure. Defence, armed forces, police, public utilities among others will remain operational with minimum staff presence.

All transportation services including railways, roadways and airways will remain suspended in this time period, and only transportation for essential goods, fire, law and order and emergency services will be allowed.

Place of worship shall be closed for public. No religious congregations will be permitted, without any permission.

The guidelines also mentioned that in case of a funeral, a congregation of not more than ‘20 persons’ will be permitted.

The government also instructed all persons who have arrived into India after February 15, 2020, and have been directed by the health care personnel to remain under strict home/institutional quarantine for a period as decided by the local health authorities, should follow the instructions, failing which they will be liable to legal action under Section 188 of IPC.

“In order to implement these containment measures, the District Magistrate will deploy Executive Magistrates as Incident Commanders in the respective local jurisdictions,” the guidelines said.

“They will be responsible for the overall implementation of these measures in their respective jurisdictions,” it added.

As per the guidelines, any person violating these containment measures, which comes into effect from March 25, 2020, for 21 days, will be liable to proceed against as per the provisions of Sections 51 to 60 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, besides legal action under Section 188 of IPC.