Over 50 days of the lockdown but the uncertainty on the prospect of ‘going back to normal’ continues to mount. With a view to alleviating concerns of corporate India, the Central and the State Governments have been coming out with a number of guidelines/circulars/orders/SOPs/advisories (collectively referred to as "guidelines”) during this period.
Though the government’s effort to come out with frequent detailed measures and guidelines in such a short span of time certainly needs to be lauded, it also needs to be noted that currently, there are more than 830 notifications pertaining to COVID-19 issued merely by state governments and more than 430 notifications by the Central Government.
In addition to this, district administrations have released guidelines, in some cases almost on a daily basis, in such a hurried manner that it becomes difficult to be abreast of the same. Ahmedabad, for instance, released guidelines almost on a daily basis in the month of May. Similarly Goa has issued more than 185 notifications during the period of the lockdown.
While, no doubt, these guidelines have been issued for a specific purpose, the sheer quantum of these notifications sometimes create their own set of problems, causing operational difficulties for corporations and businesses.