Telangana extends lockdown

Hyderabad: The Government of Telangana State has decided to extend lockdown till April 30. (The Hans India had said so in its April 7 edition.)

Addressing a press conference, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao appealed to people to continue to extend their cooperation in following the rules and regulations so that the coronavirus can be contained.

The State Cabinet, which met here on Saturday evening, endorsed the decision for extension of the lockdown till April 30. Mass congregations, public transport or any such activities will not be permitted during the extended period.

Only agricultural operations will be allowed. Similarly, rice mills, flour mills, oil mills and all food processing units will function, he said.

Stating that no country can feed India, KCR said the onus is on the leadership to save its farm sector. Hence, the need for allowing of food processing and agriculture activities be addressed.

This was suggested by the CM to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the video conference earlier in the day for which the PM said he would consider it.

KCR said that he has written a letter to the Prime Minister emphasising the need to go in for adopting measures like Quantitative Easing (QE) to overcome the economic crisis the country and the States were facing.

The QE is a form of unconventional monetary policy in which a central bank purchases longer-term securities from the open market in order to increase the money supply and encourage lending and investment.

Buying these securities adds new money into the economy, and serves to lower the interest rates by bidding up fixed-income securities. It also greatly expands the central bank's balance sheet.

Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao also called for MNREGA to be linked with agriculture for at least two months. KCR and Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot also called for quantitative easing or new money supply by the Reserve Bank of India.

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.

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.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee demanded a national package amounting to around 6% of the country's gross domestic product to counter the pandemic and its impact and relief for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan called for special non-stop trains to be arranged for the stranded people in different parts of country and broad basing the income support schemes for three months.

While Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray suggested allowing industrial activity within the four walls, Delhi's CM Arvind Kejriwal brought up the issue of Delhi's tax revenues drying up and it facing a severe revenue crunch. Also, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik called for GST waiver on personal protective equipment (PPE) and medicines.

Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh called for a three month crop loan waiver and said that the godowns are full in the state primarily dependent on agriculture.

Manipur CM Biren Singh raised the issue of racism and discrimination faced by the people from India's north eastern region in the time of the coronavirus outbreak, which began in China.