Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy urges people to respond to PM Modi's call

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Friday appealed to the people of the union territory to respond to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for lighting a candle or lamp on April 5 to demonstrate the country's collective will to fight coronovirus.

The senior Congress leader's came amidst veteran party leaders, including former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram hitting out at Modi for allegedly not making concrete announcements in his video message to the people on Friday on fighting COVID19.

Modi's message, urging people to light candle or earthern lamps on April 5 to display India's collective resolve to defeat coronavirus evoked sharp reactions from the opposition Congress, which dubbed it as "just a feel-good moment curated by India's photo-op Prime Minister."

Criticising Modi, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted, "listened to the Pradhan Showman. Nothing about how to ease people's pain, their burdens, their financial anxieties. No vision of the future or sharing the issues he is weighing in deciding about the post-lockdown. Just a feel-good moment curated by India's Photo-Op PrimeMinister!"

Chidambaram said "symbolism" is important but added a generous livelihood support package for the poor and steps to arrest the economic slide were expected, but that the people were disappointed on both counts. Narayanasamy, in a message to mediapersons, said the Prime Minister had been insisting on social distancing to stem the spread of coronavirus, focussing on 'staying home."

"I have also been insisting this repeatedly so that there would be no scope for the infection to spread," he said. He appealed to the people in Puducherry "to respond" to Modi's call made on Friday.

"I appeal to people in the Union Territory also to participate in the programme on April 5," he said.

Meanwhile, the chief minister said the government will offer a thirty percent subsidy for investments on producing material and equipment needed to treat the coronavirus affected.

Currently hospitals faced difficluty in meeting the exigency and treat persons with the virus symptoms, he told a press conference after holding consultations with his cabinet colleagues and officers.

"Ventilators, masks, monitors and other equipments are notsufficiently available," he said. Entrepreneurs producing these will be extended a thirty percent subsidy for investments to start the units and supply the material by July.

Meanwhile, Lt Governor Kiran Bedi ina video conference with President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkiah Naidy told them doctors' requirements for medical equipment needed to be met without delay. She pointed out at the "appropriate meetings Chief Minister was holding in the current situation."

There was "vibrant coordination" between the administrative and political leadership in Puducherry now, she said. Bedi and Narayansamy have been in a turf war on various administrative and financial issues ever since she assumed charge in 2016.

Image Credits: ANI