New Delhi,Apr 14:After much anticipation since the day he held a meeting with the chief ministers of state, Prime Minister NarendraModi will finally be addressing the nation at 10 am on April 14, which is the last day of the 21-day lockdown.In a tweet on Monday afternoon, the PMO Twitter handle announced that PM Modi will address the nation at 10 am on Tuesday.India was put on a 21-day lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.
The announcement of complete lockdown was made by PM Modi on March 24.As the lockdown nears an end, several states grappling with the coronavirus crisis have demanded that the Centre extends the lockdown despite all the hardships. The states sought an extension of the lockdown till April 30 in a meeting on Saturday with PM Modi.Several states such as Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana and others have already extended the lockdown till April 30.Soon after Saturday’s meeting, Delhi CM ArvindKejriwal created a flutter when he said that PM Modi has agreed to extend the lockdown till April 30.The PMO is working with top government officials to draw up the blueprint of how this plan would be implemented. Prime Minister NarendraModi is expected to sign off on the plan later in the day.A top government official said that while Prime Minister NarendraModi will address the nation on the broad steps to follow, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla will issue a detailed note on the mechanics. “A meeting on the next steps to be taken is currently on at Raisina Hill,” the official said.TheRaisina Hill is the seat of power of the central government and comprises the PMO and ministries of finance, home and defence.The broad focus of this blueprint would be to gradually resume economic activity in the 160-odd districts that do not have a single case of coronavirus safe but take all steps to ensure that the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen that causes Covid-19 does not reach there.
The second set with limited economic activity will be districts with below 500 coronavirus positive cases along with revival of the self-contained public sector and private industrial units. Within these states too, the government is looking at the proposal of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to reopen industrial units that are able to accommodate workers at its premises or bring them in special vehicles from safe zones. The department had proposed a list 12 big industries that could be allowed in a graded manner.The third set will include states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where the number of corona positive cases are high even though those areas have been demarcated as containment zones.Even in these red zones, officials said organised activity will be allowed. Unorganised economic activity may be allowed within monitored areas. For instance, officials said, they were looking at the possibility of using, say a hall in a school, for selling vegetables for a few hours, say 6am to 11 am, fruits for another set of hours and if need be, other essentials later.The idea is to give unorganised trade a means for sustenance without risking spread of the disease.According to the latest Health Ministry data, the number of coronavirus cases in India has crossed the 9,000-mark while the death toll has crossed 300.(Agencies)
