Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday announced a special package to succour children orphaned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government would give them a one-time ex gratia payment of ₹3 lakh. It would pay the children ₹2,000 per month till they reach the age of 18. The administration will underwrite the educational expense incurred by them till they graduate, he said.
Opticians, shops selling spectacles, hearing aids and artificial limbs can open twice a week for business. Mobile phone shops and repair centres, computer service centres and gas stove repairing units can also open for business twice a week.
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The government has temporarily closed three medical stores in Kasaragod that sold COVID-19 material above the standard price.
The government has allowed stone-crushing units supplying the construction sector to function and centres making sanitary material for women to function.
The police have further tightened curbs on life in Malappuram district, which was under triple lockdown. Law enforcement will continue to impose the lockdown prevailing across Kerala strictly, Mr. Vijayan said.
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The Excise and the Police Departments have stepped up joint raids to detect and destroy illicit liquor distillation dens.
In the past 24 hours, the police booked 8,188 persons for violating the mask mandate and 4,776 persons for not observing physical distance. They collected ₹36,24,550 in fine.
The government would crack down on fake messaging aimed at creating vaccine hesitancy in society, he said.