Govt ends weekend restrictions, coaching centres to open with 50% strength

Night curfew to begin from 10 pm now

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 6: The Government today withdrew weekend restrictions on non-essential movement in Jammu and Kashmir following steep decline in COVID cases and also allowed coaching centres to switch to offline medium of teaching with 50 percent of capacity.
Latest guidelines were issued tonight by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta in his capacity as the Chairperson State Executive Committee (SEC).
There will be no weekend restrictions on non-essential movement in the entire Union Territory now.
Earlier, the weekend restrictions were in place from 2 pm Friday to 6 am Monday. However, for this week, the restrictions were confined to Saturday and Sunday only. Restrictions were not enforced on Saturday and majority of shops and business establishments remained open but today shops were closed in some areas.
The Government has also reduced night curfew by an hour. Now, the night curfew in all districts will be from 10 pm to 6 am instead of 9 pm to 6 am.
In another decision, the Government has permitted coaching centres for Civil Services/Engineering/NEET etc to resume offline medium of teaching but with 50 percent of their capacity.
However, the coaching centres will have to ensure that both faculty members as well as students are fully vaccinated and other measures for COVID Appropriate Behaviour are adhered to.
The banquet halls in the Union Territory have now been permitted to hold functions up to 25 percent of authorized capacity.
However, the indoor gathering will remain strictly restricted to 25, the SEC order said.
Meanwhile, shops and business establishments remained closed in many parts of Jammu today as part of weekend lockdown. However, at some other places, shops were open. Traffic was normal on the roads.