Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has sought people’s cooperation with same spirit in enforcing the ongoing lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the State.
The Chief Minister’s remarks, made during a meeting with senior officials to review the measures taken to check the spread of the virus and impact of lockdown, assume significance as Mr. Rao has been among the first to advocate extension of the lockdown by at least two weeks to completely check the virus impact. The remarks come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video-conference with chief ministers scheduled on Saturday.
The Chief Minister during a recent press conference appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the lockdown as it is the only way the country could escape from the ill-effects of the pandemic that is fast gripping different parts of the country. The government initiated several measures, including providing effective treatment to people tested positive to COVID-19, besides taking measures to tracking and tracing the contacts of the affected people.
He instructed the officials concerned to ensure that there was no shortage of supply of essential commodities to the people while steps should be taken to ensure that harvesting of paddy and its procurement was not impacted by the lockdown. At the same time, steps should be taken to enforce the lockdown without giving scope for people to come out.
Mr. Rao said the spread of the pandemic was not alarming in the country and the State as compared with other countries and the people should realise the fact and cooperate with the government in effectively enforcing the lockdown. The government on its part should take steps to ensure that there was no interruption in the supply of essentials like vegetables, milk and others to the people maintaining the social distancing norms at the outlets.
He wanted the people’s cooperation in ensuring supply of rice free-of-cost to them and they should come to the fair price shops at the specific time slot allotted to them. The government had initiated the process for depositing ₹ 1,500 each in the accounts of cardholders and crediting of the amount started on Friday.
Officials concerned should take steps to ensure that procurement centres were set up in all the villages and steps should be taken to ensure that paddy was procured from all the farmers. Farmers on their part should come to the procurement centres at the time allotted to them.
The meeting discussed about the issues that should be raised during the video-conference with the Prime Minister on Saturday as well as the issues that should figure in the meeting of the State Cabinet scheduled after the Prime Minister’s video-conference. Officials informed the Chief Minister that 16 new corona positive cases were reported from across the State on Friday and all those admitted to the hospitals were being provided treatment while the relatives and contacts of the affected persons had been sent to the quarantine centres.
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