Published 16:13 IST, June 21st 2020
Kerala minister urges political parties to refrain from holding protests amid COVID crisis
Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said political parties should refrain from calling large scale protests as it may lead to a surge in COVID cases
In the wake of the COVID-19 infection, Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran on Sunday said that political parties should refrain from calling out large scale protests as it may lead to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
"In a democracy, opposition and the public have the right to hold protests and demonstrations. But during COVID-19 pandemic, gatherings of hundreds in the name of protests cannot be allowed. Anyone can hold protest following COVID-19 guidelines," he said.
This comes after incidents of protestors being involved in confrontations with police personnel came to light. Also, a high-level meeting was conducted by the state government to discuss the ongoing situation and surge in number of COVID-19 cases in the state's capital and the government's response to containing the rise.
"Such incidents should be avoided. Seeing all this, I doubt that some people who are behind these protests want to make the state capital like that of Chennai or Mumbai where there is a high number of COVID-19 cases. Such an attitude just to criticise the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government is highly deplorable," he added.
He also said that the government will hold an all-party meeting to counter the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Kerala has reported 3,039 COVID-19 infections of which 1,450 are active while 1,568 have been recovered and 21 have succumbed to the virus, according to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The state witnessed 127 new cases on Saturday, the highest single-day spike in the number of COVID-19 infections.
(With ANI inputs)
Updated 16:13 IST, June 21st 2020