NEW DELHI: In an initial step towards return to normalcy, ministers and senior officers will be back in government offices from Monday, with up to a third of junior officers and staff also allowed to assist them, while ensuring social-distancing norms.“The government has desired that all officers who are entitled to official transport facility will come to office from Monday, that is officers of the level of joint secretary or higher,” said an official source, although a formal communication was not issued.The move signals the government’s plan to manage exit from the lockdown , although it is yet to decide on allowing private sector to begin operations, in a limited way. While a source said the government has asked businesses to brace for a possible opening up, a senior officer said a decision on resuming operations at factories producing “non-essential” goods has not been taken yet.Although ministries have been opened up in a limited manner, government officials said they were looking to operate in this manner for the next few months as full-scale operations could only commence when Covid-19 was brought under control, for which a vaccine is essential.With the lockdown still in place, the first two days are unlikely to see any public dealing as citizens would still be confined to their homes. An extension will allow ministries to prepare for a limited opening up of public dealing in the coming weeks although compliance requirements have been eased for three months in several sectors such as taxation and companies law to reduce the need to visit government offices.