With the Centre planning to bring home Indians stranded in other countries, the district administration is banking on the hospitality sector to accommodate arriving expatriates.
District Collector Bharat N. Gupta on Thursday appealed to the scores of hotels and lodges in Tirupati, which have been closed due to the lockdown, to accommodate the expatriates for the mandatory 14-day quarantine period. He asked hotel managements to get themselves registered with the Revenue Divisional Officer if they were interested in hosting the returnees.
“As far as payment is concerned, the hotels will have to deal with the guests directly. The chain of hotels under the aggregator ‘OYO’ has expressed interest in hosting expatriates,” Dr. Gupta said at a review meeting on Thursday.
The Collector also the go-ahead to small-scale trade and construction activity all over the district barring containment zones. “Migrant workers will get enough work here now, but if they still want to leave for their home States, they may do so by getting registered with the respective Tahsildars, provided the host State agrees for inward arrivals,” he said.
SP cautions public
With the district returning to a semblance of normalcy, Superintendent of Police (Tirupati Urban) Avula Ramesh Reddy visited the arterial streets of the city, cautioning the public not to take the lockdown relaxation lightly. Walking for nearly two km on the roads, he warned the public not to go out of their homes unless there was a valid reason to do so, and that too only after wearing masks.
The SP also visited a couple of petrol pumps and liquor outlets to personally monitor the implementation of social distancing norms. “The relaxation has been announced to ensure some economic activity is taken up, but we should not throw caution to the wind. Usage of masks, sanitisers and social distancing norms are here to stay,” Mr. Ramesh Reddy said.
