Letter to BS: States should be given some flexibility to relax lockdown

As the country entered the third phase of the lockdown with discernible relaxations in the non-hotspot regions, what was missed was the limitation of a top-down ap­proach. The states do not have leeway or a final say in drawings boundaries of the areas that have to be opened up. While the Union home ministry has classified 130 districts as Covid-19 hotspots with maximum restrictions, several states have expressed their strong disapproval of the approach of designating entire districts as Red zones. Their argument that only containment areas with high case-load in hotspot districts should be subjected to strident restrictions is