[ad_1]
New Delhi: With the economy in the doghouse and the Covid-19 pandemic about to peak in the next four to six weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact again with senior ministers via videoconference on Monday to seek their views on how to move forward with easing restrictions.
Modi’s interaction with the CMs, scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday, will be the fifth since the blockade was imposed nationwide at midnight on March 24 and is expected to last until May 17. The number of Covid-19 infections has more than doubled since the last PM interacted with CMs on April 27, from just over 28,000 cases to over 65,000 cases now.
The sources said that while the blockade is likely to extend further, the restrictions could be lifted in some key sectors, with the focus on reviving economic activity. Several states have recently relaxed labor laws to restart activities by allowing limited staff to work shifts.
The meeting will also focus on driving measures to convert red areas with high Covid-19 case loads to orange or green areas. On May 1, the Union Ministry of Health classified 733 districts as 130 in the red zone, 284 in the orange zone and 319 in the green zone.
States are likely to pose problems related to special trains to bring migrant workers to their home states, request permission to allow more economic activities in non-active areas, financial resources to support small businesses and the vulnerable, and a additional supply of test kits, ventilators and personal protective equipment.
The Office of the Prime Minister (PMO) has sought a detailed report on how each lead minister has handled the ongoing health crisis from all the key agencies involved in fighting it.
Highly located sources informed this newspaper that PMO is planning to evaluate the performance of each state in terms of how successfully they have managed to enforce the blockade and how effective the containment strategies of all states have been.
For this purpose, contributions from each state have been solicited from various official agencies, including ICMR, on how states have handled the situation arising from the pandemic.
This assessment comes at a time when even AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria has said that the pandemic will peak in the coming months in India.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also hold a video conference with the executive directors of public sector banks and the president of the State Bank of India to review the flow of credit to the economy. The meeting will review penalties and credit disbursements from March 1. You are expected to review additional working capital based on reevaluation and sanctioned / pre-approved emergency credit related to Covid.
…
