Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday pitched for extension of the lockdown, but with a carefully crafted strategy, backed by fiscal and economic empowerment of the states, to save lives and secure livehoods.
Clearly favouring continuation of a strict lockdown, in view of the escalating cases of Covid nationwide, the Chief Minister said at the video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that states needed to be given greater flexibility in micro-planning as part of a carefully planned exit strategy, encompassing both Covid containment and a defined path of economic revival.
The exit strategy should consider and focus on fiscal and economic empowerment of the states, which are responsible for the real action directly impinging upon the livelihood and social health of the common man, he said, suggesting that states should be allowed great flexibility in micro-planning, with MSMEs to be allowed to function in red zone districts with proper safeguards.
The decision on designating the red, orange or yellow and green zones should be left to the states, which were more cognisant of the ground realities, he said.
Amarinder Singh demanded urgent financial assistance to states to meet at least 33 per cent of their committed liabilities, along with revenue grants to the states for three months to meet shortfall in revenue and to fund expenditure on Covid-19.
The Chief Minister also called for a national strategy on Covid testing for making the battle against Covid more effective, pointing out that he had also written to the Prime Minister to direct the Central government institutions in Chandigarh and Punjab to increase testing capacity.
Punjab had so far done 40,962 tests done so far, with current testing rate at 2,500 per day, which the state government planned to scale up to 6,000 by end of the month.
Pointing out that Punjab had procured 115 lakh metric tonnes of wheat, with proper social distancing and hygiene protocols in place, he also requested an early declaration of MSP on paddy and a bonus on non-burning of paddy stubble.
Amarinder Singh also informed the Prime Minister that Punjab was losing Rs 3,000 crore per month in revenue (totally 88 per cent of the estimated revenue loss recorded in April), along with Rs 30 crore daily loss for Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (a decline of 30 per cent).
He reiterated his demand for immediate release of the Punjab’s GST arrears of Rs 4,365.37 crore.
Further, the Chief Minister said in view of the complete change in the situation due to the pandemic, the 15th Finance Commission should review its report for the current year, and recommend devolution of funds for five years beginning from April 1, 2021, instead of 2020 onwards after factoring in the impact of Covid-19 for which the term of the Commission should be extended by another year.
The state government has been fighting the Covid battle from the front, and had successfully brought down the mortality rate in the state to 1.8 per cent, while containing the doubling rate at around seven days against national average of 11 days, the Chief Minister said.
The rate of increase was falling after having risen sharply in the last 10 days due to the large number of persons who tested positive after returning from other states, he said, expressing the confidence that the situation should improve further in the coming week.
With four containment zones, Punjab currently has 1,823 positive cases (2.75 per cent of all-India cases), with 31 deaths (1.4 per cent of all-India deaths), translating into mortality rate of 1.7 per cent.
In terms of inbound movement of stranded people, the Chief Minister said around 56,000 persons from Punjab stranded in other states had registered with his government, with around 20,000 Indian nationals returning from other countries.
