Chennai: As India battles the Covid-19 crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a video conference with Chief Ministers primarily to take their feedback on whether the 21-nation-wide lockdown be extended beyond 14 April to stem the tide of the infections.
The Central government is understood to have also obtained views on the issue from all the relevant agencies and stakeholders involved in the efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic.
The video conference, which began at 11am, took place amidst indications that the Central government may extend the nationwide lockdown with some possible relaxations even as Punjab and Odisha have already announced extending the lockdown beyond 14 April when the current spell of 21-day shutdown across the country ends on Tuesday.
The Union Home Ministry has sought views of State governments on various aspects, including whether more categories of people and services need to be exempted. In the current lockdown only essential services are exempted.
This is for the second time the Prime Minister is interacting with the Chief Ministers via video link after the lockdown was imposed.
During his 2 April interaction with Chief Ministers, Modi had pitched for a ‘staggered’ exit from the ongoing lockdown. A high-level team from Tamilnadu, led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami attended both the conferences.
Today, the Chief Ministers of Delhi and Punjab suggested extension of the nationwide lockdown till 30 April.
During the interaction held via video conferencing, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh suggested extension of the national lockdown by at least a fortnight. Sources said, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also suggested extension of the lockdown till 30 April.
Modi, accompanied by some senior officials, including from the Union Health Ministry, was wearing a white mask during the meeting which was also attended by chief ministers — Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Manohar Lal (Haryana), K Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana) and Nitish kumar (Bihar).
Modi to address nation?
Prime Minister Modi may address the nation today or on Sunday evening to announce the decision on extension of lockdown. Addressing floor leaders of various parties who have representation in Parliament, on Wednesday, he had made it clear that the lockdown cannot be lifted in one go on 14 April, asserting that the priority of his government is to “save each and every life”.