Rahul Gandhi silent on nationwide lockdown, moots two-pronged strategy to combat COVID-19

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday mooted a two-pronged strategy to deal with the novel coronavirus crisis. First, he suggested that the spread of COVID-19 can be stopped by remaining in isolation and testing on a large scale. Moreover, he called for temporary emergency hospitals containing ICU facility to be set up in cities. 

Thereafter, Gandhi urged the Centre to immediately help the daily wage labourers via direct cash transfer. Maintaining that they should get free ration, he contended that any kind of delay in providing help would be destructive. Additionally, the former Congress president demanded tax cuts and economic assistance to prevent job losses. According to Gandhi, traders deserved concrete assurance from the Union government. However, he did not offer any comment on the nationwide lockdown. 

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Coronavirus crisis

Currently, there are 553 active COVID-19 cases in India while 10 individuals have died due to the pandemic. Initially, many states in India shut down educational institutions, shopping malls, swimming pools, places of worship until March 31. This was followed by a partial reduction in public transport services. Subsequently, both domestic and international flight operations were suspended besides 32 states and Union Territories declaring a lockdown.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a complete lockdown in the entire country for three weeks. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled measures to ease the woes of the consumers and the corporate sector. This included extending the last date to file IT returns and composition returns to June 30, making customs clearance an essential service, relaxing the mandatory requirement of board meetings for a period of 60 days and so forth. She mentioned that a financial relief package was on the anvil. 

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