The two Telugu speaking states differed on the extension of complete lockdown with the Telangana government in favour of it for another two weeks, while the Andhra Pradesh government wanted relaxations in the lockdown.
Participating in the video-conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said while the complete impact of lockdown on the state economy was yet to be assessed, he expressed concerned that the agriculture sector has been severely impacted. “
The Chief Minister was of the view that the complete lockdown should be enforced only in areas declared as hotpsots by the state government. “The Andhra Pradesh government has put in place containment cluster strategy. Around 141containment clusters were declared as hotspots. He said in a total of 676 mandals, the state government had identified 81 mandals as red zones and orange zones. “81 mandals were declared as red zones and orange zones, 37 red zones and 44 oranges zones were declared , the remaining mandals were identified as green zones. In my opinion, the lockdown should be enforced in the red zones. The restrictions should continue in public gatherings like malls, cinema halls, places of worship, schools.”
Jagan said while the full economic impact on the state was yet to be assessed, he said several sectors are already feeling the pain, especially the farm sector which is the mainstay in Andhra Pradesh. Jagan said while the government should initiate very bold steps, “we have to ensure the wheel of economy keeps moving if not in full speed at least to the level of sustenance of the people. I would like to emphasize the impact of lockdown on the state particularly on the common man. Agriculture sector is the mainstay of our economy constituting more than 35 per cent of the GSDP and employing more than 62 per cent of workforce in our state. Interstate movement of agriculture commodities has come to an abysmal low with less than 25 per cent of the trucks on the roads due to fear of stoppage in between. There is very little storage space available for agriculture commodities within the state and our godowns,” he noted.
This is the third video-conference held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the chief ministers in the past month. The Prime Minister was seen wearing a face mask in the video-conference. Barring Jagan Mohan Reddy, several chief ministers including Arvind Kejriwal, Maharashhtra’s Uddhav Thackeray, Karnataka’s B S Yediyurappa, Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath, Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot and West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee were seen wearing masks. More than 10 states favoured extension of complete lockdown stating that it was the only way to contain the spread of corona virus. During the video-conference lasting several hours, several chief ministers including Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab’s Amarinder Singh and West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee had suggested extending the lockdown at least by a fortnight. Odisha and Punjab have already extended the lockdown till April 30 and May 1 respectively
