Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in tackling the locust attacks. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr. Gehlot sought the declaration of locust attacks as a national disaster in view of the losses caused to kharif crops earlier this year and the threat to the rabi crops. The Centre also needed to take up coordination with other countries to stop the swarms of locusts at the points of their origin, he said.
“Locusts destroyed crops on 6.70 lakh hectares in 12 districts of Rajasthan in 2019-20, causing a loss of ₹1,000 crore to the farmers. Works for controlling the locust outbreak have been taken up on 3.83 lakh hectares this year, but its impact is likely to be worse than last year,” Mr. Gehlot said, while seeking an urgent action on this front.
In another letter, Mr. Gehlot said Mr. Modi had formally communicated with Chief Ministers on June 17 to discuss the steps for controlling the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. As the indicators of infection and economic scenario of States had changed since then, Mr. Gehlot requested the Prime Minister to hold a videoconference with the Chief Ministers on the pandemic management.
On the efforts made in Rajasthan, Mr. Gehlot said the total samples collected for tests till June 17 were 6.37 lakh, which had increased to 15.26 lakh as on August 1. “As a result of the State government’s efforts, the rate of infected people which was 2.12% as on June 17 has been limited to 2.79% as on August 1. The recovery rate of these infected people is 77.29% as on August 1.”
“We are constantly striving to reduce the mortality rate of those infected with COVID-19. The death rate has decreased from 2.31% in June to 1.62% on August 1. The daily testing capacity has been increased from 22,000 to 45,000 on August 1. The number of sample collections has also increased from 13,000 to 28,000 per day,” Mr. Gehlot said.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the videoconference on COVID-19 management would not only uphold the ideals of collaborative federalism, but would also help in exchange of information, sharing of strategies adopted in various States and ensuring an effective coordination among the States.
