BENGALURU: After days of dilly-dallying, the Karnataka government said it would ease lockdown 2.0 from Thursday, allowing a range of services — from private clinics and veterinary centres to home repairs involving carpenters, plumbers, electricians and mechanics. The government order issued on Wednesday stressed that the relaxations will not apply to Covid-19 hotspots and containment zones across the state.Sub-registrar offices will open in 11 districts, under strict social distancing norms. Educational institutions and transport services will remain shut. Funerals will be allowed with a limit of 20 people.State chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said IT & ITES firms will be allowed to function with minimum essential staff. “The government has left it to the companies to decide their minimum staff requirement and discuss it with the IT-BT (information technology-biotechnology) department before resuming work. We will allow only critical staff, who are identified and issued passes, to function. The others will continue to work from home,” he said.“The relaxation is primarily to revive the economy step by step. While there will be challenges, the government is geared up to meet them,” deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan , who holds the IT-BT portfolio, said.The order also specifies that companies should encourage employees with children up to five years and elderly (65 years and above) at home to work from their residence. “We would encourage IT-BT companies to use the services of contract carriages to ferry their employees or continue with work-from-home option. We want to restrict the movement of vehicles as far as possible,” said another senior official.“The self-employed who live on a daily income, such as carpenters, electricians, motor mechanics and plumbers, will be allowed to work, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. We are planning to issue special passes for them at local municipal/panchayat offices,” the official said.All private and veterinary clinics which were shut due to the lockdown may also reopen. Hotels, homestays, lodges and motels can function to accommodate those stranded in the lockdown, the order said.Before allowing the relaxations, the respective district administrations and city corporations must ensure that workplaces have social distancing arrangements in place, a senior minister said. Covid-19 protection and distancing protocol must also be ensured in agriculture, construction and other sectors where concessions have been made, officials said.Among other activities allowed to resume are: hotels for parcel services, agriculture producers marketing committee (APMC) yards and production of cement, steel, tiles and bricks.While inter-district and inter-state travel continues to be suspended, dhabas have been allowed to function on the highways at a distance of 20km from each other, primarily to ensure food for truckers.Other sectors in the ambit of relaxation are: courier services, food processing industries and cold storage and warehousing services, including at ports, airports, railway stations, container depots and individual units. Tea, coffee and rubber plantations have been allowed to work with 50% workforce; a similar exemption has been made for units processing, packaging and marketing the produce.The government also has allowed construction of Metro rail projects, roads and buildings, irrigation works and industrial projects, including MSMEs, outside city limits. Projects in industrial estates where workers are available on-site and are not required to be brought from outside can also resume.