Views Diverge on Covid-19 Response
Staff Reporters / Agencies
Several Chief Ministers have asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give them free hand in deciding ways to combat coronavirus crisis in their states. They raised the issue at a marathon meeting held to discuss the response to the virus and the lockdown exit strategy.
The demand for free hand in making the decisions came as several divergent views emerged in the six-hour video conference on what should be the road ahead. This was the fifth virtual meeting that Prime Minister Modi held with chief ministers to discuss the Covid-19 situation.
While some suggested reopening economic activity in phases, others believed that it would be too dangerous at this stage in India’s fight against the spread of Covid-19.
Among those who pushed for decentralisation of the Covid-19 response were Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik.
While Vijayan and Banerjee said the states should have the flexibility in changing the lockdown guidelines to reopen services depending on the ground situation, Singh, Baghel and Patnaik said the classification of red, orange and green zones should be left to the states and not be decided by the home ministry.
Banerjee, while speaking during the virtual interaction, said there was a sharp contradiction between the lockdown order issued by the Centre and subsequent directives on relaxations.
“On one hand the Centre wants the lockdown to be enforced strictly, and on the other it is resuming train services and reopening land borders. What is the point in continuing with the lockdown if the railways, land borders and
all other sectors are allowed to reopen? This is contradictory,” TMC sources quoted her as having told the meeting.
Amarinder Singh while asking for the states to be empowered to make more decisions also asked for the nationwide lockdown to be extended further beyond May 17.
He was among at least four CMs to advocate for the extension as Telangan’s K Chandrasekhar Rao, Bihar’s Nitish Kumar and Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal.
On the other end of the spectrum were Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who pushed for lifting of most restrictions and reopening economic activities.
Reddy said the lockdown has vastly affected the livelihoods of people and appealed to the Centre to take a relook into the current containment strategy and shift towards preparing people to “live with the virus”. Kejriwal asked the Centre to declassify the entire Delhi as a red zone and said restrictions should only apply in containment zones.
Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, on the other hand, suggested doing away with the district-wise colour coding of red, orange and green zones based on the number of covid-19 cases altogether and cordoning off only containment zones.
CMs of at least four states – Bihar, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh – also opposed the resumption of train services from Tuesday and asked the Centre to push the date back, warning that it would make it harder to identify, isolate and test suspected Covid-19 cases and could lead to chaos in their states.
While Nitish Kumar called starting trains a bad idea, EK Palanisami said trains should not be allowed to ply in his state till May 31 as cases there are surging and have crossed the 8,000 mark. He also said flights should not allowed till the month end in the state.
The meeting was held even as India saw the biggest single-day spike in the number of coronavirus cases with 4,213 new infections and 97 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total case count to 67,152 and the death toll to 2,206.
Suggestions made by the States for a roadmap on Economy have been given due consideration: PM
In his opening remarks the Prime Minister said, “We now have reasonably clear indication as to the geographical spread of the pandemic in India, including the worst affected areas. Moreover, over the past few weeks, officials have understood operating procedures in a time such as this, right up to the District level.”
Prime Minister said that this understanding of the spread of COVID-19 will help the country in having a focussed fight against it.
“And therefore, we can now further focus our strategy in this battle against coronavirus, as should be the case. We have a twofold challenge – to reduce the transmission rate of the disease, and to increase public activity gradually, while adhering to all the guidelines, and we will have to work towards achieving both these objectives”, he said.
Prime Minister further said now the effort should be to stop the spread of the COVID-19 to rural areas.
The Prime Minister said the suggestions made by the States for a roadmap on Economy have been given due consideration.
The Chief Ministers appreciated the leadership of the Prime Minister in the country’s fight against COVID-19 and also highlighted the need to strengthen the medical and health infrastructure in the country. Several of them pointed out that with the return of migrants, there is a need to concentrate on strict implementation of the social distancing guidelines, usage of masks and sanitization in order to curb the spread through fresh infection, especially in rural areas.
The compulsory quarantining of the stranded Indians returning from abroad was also highlighted. The Chief Ministers in their suggestions on economy have sought support to MSMEs, Infrastructure projects like Power, easing of interest rates on loans and assured market access to the agricultural produce.
Prime Minister thanked the Chief Minister’s for their proactive role in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 and for their valuable suggestions emanating out of their grassroot level experience.
Prime Minister said that we must understand that the World has fundamentally changed post COVID-19. Now the World will be Pre-Corona, Post-Corona just like the case of the World Wars. And this would entail significant changes in how we function.
He said the new way of life would be on the principle of “Jan Se lekar Jag Tak”, from an individual to the whole of humanity.
He said we must all plan for the new reality.
“Even as we look at the gradual withdrawal of the lockdown, we should constantly remember that till we do not find a vaccine or a solution, the biggest weapon with us to the fight the virus is social distancing”, he said.
Prime Minister reaffirmed the importance of Do Gaz Ki doori and added that suggestion of night curfew raised by many CMs would surely reaffirm the feeling of caution among people.
He requested all the Chief Ministers for specific feedback lockdown.
“I request you all to share with me by 15th May, a broad strategy on how you each one of you would want to deal with the lockdown regime in your particular states. I want states to make a blue print on how to deal with various nuances during and after the gradual easing of the lockdown”, he said.
Prime Minister said, we will need an all-encompassing approach to deal with various challenges that will arise before us.With the onset of Monsoon, there will be proliferation of many non-COVID19 diseases, for which we must prepare and strengthen our medical and health systems.
He asked the policy makers to also keep in mind how to embrace new models of teaching and learning in the education sector.
Referring to Tourism the Prime Minister said he saw potential for domestic tourism but we need to think of the contours of the same.
He said, “I am of the firm view that the measures needed in the first phase of lockdown were not needed during the 2nd phase and similarly the measures needed in the 3rd Phase are not needed in the fourth.”
Referring to the resumption of train Services, the Prime Minister said, this is needed to rev up the economic activity, but said that all the routes will not be resumed. Prime Minister said only a limited number of trains would ply.
The Prime Minister said he continues to feel optimistic, when not even a single state sounded despondent and that this collective determination will make India win in its fight against COVID-19.
PM said that the Post-COVID era also brings opportunities that India must leverage.