Lockdown extended for two more weeks....

Breaking News Regarding The Lockdown

PM Modi agrees with states that lockdown should be extended for two more weeks.

Several states on Saturday pitched for an extension of the 21-day nationwide lockdown, that was to end on 14 April, during their video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to government officials.

While chief ministers of Kerala, West Bengal, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Delhi, and governor of Jammu and Kashmir made a case for the extension of lockdown, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy suggested a partial lockdown.

States and the union government have to make a crucial decision over the issue of lives versus livelihood during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

States also sought more resources to deal with the health and the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and pitched for leveraging Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to counter the same.

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren called for increasing the pay and number of work days under MGNREGA. Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao also called for MNREGA to be linked with agriculture for at least two months.

MGNREGA is a demand-driven social security scheme that provides for 100 days of work per rural household with the number of work days allowed to be increased to 150 annually in case of drought, flood or a similar calamity.

While making a case for the quantitative easing to be 5% of the GDP, Rao asked for increasing the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management limit to 6% and deferring the state’ debt service obligations by three to six months.

India had earlier rolled out a ₹1.7 trillion relief package, to limit the economic damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak, which many experts have termed as inadequate.