A day before Telangana's
ongoing night curfew was to end, the state government today announced that the curfew would now be extended by another week, ending on May 15 instead of on May 8.
Further, the curfew will now be in effect from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am each day, instead of beginning at 9:00 pm.
This is the second time the government has extended the curfew, which was originally supposed to be implemented
between April 20 and May 1.
It was perhaps
pressure from the state's high court that prompted the decision since the court had asked the government to take a call on either extending both the duration and the number of days of the current curfew or implementing a weekend curfew in Telangana, to prevent the further spread of Covid-19.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar issued the extension orders in GO 94. He reportedly instructed the state's District Collectors, SPs and other district-level officials to impose the night curfew strictly till next week.
The TRS government has also prohibited all kinds of social, political, entertainment, sports and religious gatherings. These orders, unlike the night curfew, will be in force till further notice.
The extension comes when Telangana's case tally has
seen a slight decline after weeks of
skyrocketing daily case counts.
Kumar had already announced that
no lockdown would be imposed in the state as Telangana was "doing better than other states in terms of case tallies".
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had also announced during a meeting that a fresh lockdown was not the solution to the pandemic, and added that even states that had imposed lockdowns had been witnessing surges in case figures.