Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Tuesday said the State had no plans to extend the COVID-19 lockdown. He said he would request Prime Minister Narendra Modi for more relaxations during their meeting on Wednesday.
“Lockdown is not necessary for Karnataka. We will request for more relaxations,” he said to a question on videoconferencing with Mr. Modi.
While some service activities have now opened up, several others, including metro rail, gyms, swimming pools, and cinemas, have remained shut since the lockdown was introduced on March 25. The owners of these service providers have been demanding that they be granted permission to resume activities as their businesses were hit severely during the past three months.
“I will request him [Mr. Modi] to make way for people to lead a normal life and for improvements in the economic situation,” Mr. Yediyurappa said. In the first round of meetings on Tuesday, Mr. Modi interacted with Chief Ministers of States and Union Territories that have had relatively few COVID-19 cases. In the second round of meetings on Wednesday, Mr. Modi will speak to Chief Ministers of States with higher number of cases.Mr. Yediyurappa insisted that the maximum number of cases in the State were because of people coming from other States and their primary contacts.
He said the government had been making all efforts to control spread of the disease by monitoring people travelling to the State.“We are taking strong measures and all of us should fight this together,” he said.
He said that despite financial difficulties, the State government had released ₹1,000 crore on Monday for providing compensation to 50 lakh farmers. The Centre had been providing ₹2,000 each to farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and the State government had decided to release an additional ₹4,000, bringing the total to ₹6,000, the Chief Minister said.
