Lockdown created economic disruptions, need national plan to tackle Covid-like crisis: Panel

NEW DELHI: The sudden lockdown imposition resulted in unprecedented disruptions, including stoppage of intra and inter-state movement of people, goods, the shutdown of factories, hotels, eateries, tourism etc and other economic activities with severe social and economic fallouts, a Parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs has said in a report on Covid-19 situation.

The committee has recommended the formation of a national plan under the NDMA, 2005 and Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 for co-ordination between the Centre, states & UTs for quick response to such a crisis in future.  

The panel noted that the NDMA is meant for handling disasters and not for handling the pandemic/epidemic which happens in decades and even once in a century.

“The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, is outdated as it was framed in the colonial-era and needs revisiting, updation and amendment,” it said. Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma, who led the panel, stated that the committee “would ensure efficacious implementation of all decisions to contain pandemics and equitable/timely distribution of relief at district and sub-divisional levels to the intended beneficiaries in urban and rural areas.”

In the report submitted to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu through video conferencing on “Management of COVID-19 pandemic and related issues”, the panel examined the various aspects of the seriousness of the situation arising out of the pandemic.

The panel recommended the government to prepare a national database of migrant workers at the earliest, observing that the migrants are the backbone of the industrial sector, but due to the lockdown many migrant workers lost their jobs. 

It appreciated the government’s efforts to extend relief measures to the vulnerable sections but added that the absence of a national database, it is difficult to extend the relief measures to the intended beneficiaries.