Minister of State (MoS) for Social Justice in Narendra Modi government, Ramdas Athawale has demanded that the lockdown extension by May 30 so that the coronavirus can be contained.
“I feel that lockdown should be extended up to May 30 at least in red zones. If the virus is still not tamed, the lockdown should be further extended beyond May 30 as well. At the same time, in green zones the economic activities must start. So far more than 25 thousand small scale industries have started functioning,” Ramdas Athawale told IANS in an exclusive interview.
The Union Minister expressed concern over the issue of migrant workers and labourers walking to their native states as they have no food and money. However, Athawale said that the decision taken by migrants to walk home was wrong while acknowledging that if they had enough food they would not have decided to walk.
Athawale further went on to criticise Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the state as the COVID-19 cases are nearing 25,000-mark. Speaking on the issue of migrants, Athawale said that if Uddhav Thackeray government had made arrangements of food, medicine, ration for the migrants, they would not have moved out.
Furthermore, the Union Minister objected to Uddhav Thackeray’s demand to start Mumbai’s local train services for essential services. “If this happens, there will be no social distancing in trains and the cases will rise manifold in Mumbai,” Athawale said. Thackeray had requested the same during a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Attacking Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for criticising the Modi government, Athawale said this was a time when all should come together to defeat the coronavirus.
“Sonia Gandhi’s statement that India did not plan before going into the lockdown is totally wrong. If the Narendra Modi government would not have taken a timely decision to enforce lockdown, the cases would have gone in lakhs and many more would have died,” the Union Minister said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray approved ₹54.75 crores to pay for the travel of the migrant workers and labourers who are travelling to their native states by special trains. The funds which have been released through Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF) provided to all 36 districts
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