Rahul Gandhi, the former President of the Indian National Congress (INC,) on the 8th of May, slammed the Central Government over deciding three zones for COVID-19.
Mr. Gandhi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his decision to categorise zones on the basis of the COVID-19 spread.
Rahul Gandhi said the decision to categorize Red, Orange and Green Zones should be taken by state governments, which is monitoring the situation closely.
The Central Government listed 130 Red Zones, 284 Orange Zones and 319 Green Zones for the spread of the Novel Coronavirus across India.
The criticism was made during a press conference on the 8th of May. This is the second press conference addressed by Mr. Rahul Gandhi after the nationwide lockdown was imposed.
The nationwide lockdown was imposed on the 24th of March and was revised twice, once on the 14th of April and another on the 1st of May. The ongoing lockdown is proposed to end on the 17th of May. However, the recent lockdown 3.0 came with a few relaxations of restrictions for people residing in the Green Zones in India.
Mr. Rahul Gandhi addressed the media and said, “Today the situation is not normal. There is not going to be a general solution in this. If we decentralise and take this fight to the district level, a solution can be found. If we keep this fight till the PMO, then there is a possibility of losing.” He further said, “I request the government that they view state governments and the district magistrates as partners and that they do not centralise the decision making.”
Rahul Gandhi said, “The Prime Minister has his own style, but in my view, in such a situation a strong Prime Minister along with a lot of strong Chief Ministers and a lot of strong collectors are needed. I want us to tackle the disease at the local level itself.”
Emphasising on the need of ground level officials and state minister to monitor the situation, Rahul Gandhi said, “I want a strong Indian leader to stand in front of this disease – be it a collector or a farmer. The zones are being decided at the national level while the CMs say that it should be decided at the State level.”
Asserting the pandemic situation to be a national problem, Rahul Gandhi said one should forget about politics and partition in parties, but everyone’s responsibility to fight COVID-19. He said right now, the only thing one should remember is, we are Indians and we need to end the crises bringing back the worsened economy on track.
Rahul Gandhi said, “We have been in lockdown for 45 days now and we are beginning to run into a little bit of a problem.” Highlighting the need of providing support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India.
Mr. Gandhi said, “ The Government should take the idea of NYAY and start putting money directly into the hands of 50 per cent of India’s poor households. It’s not going to cost too much. Rs 65,000 crores is what it is going to cost.”
Speaking about the ongoing lockdown, Rahul Gandhi said, “The lockdown is not a key, that you switch it on and it’s gone. It requires a number of things to happen. It requires a psychological change. The government needs to understand that it’s not an on-off switch.”
The INC leader asked the Central Government to share about the post lockdown strategies to fight the Novel Coronavirus in India.
Meanwhile, India reported a total of 56,516 cases of the Novel Coronavirus with 1,895 fatalities till the 8th of May.
Stay tuned for further updates
source: IANS.
