Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has called for national lock down well beyond April 15 in order to fully contain Covid-19.

“I’m for the extension of the lockdown. Over 20 countries, including Singapore, are under lockdown. We can be no exception. There is no other weapon that can help us contain the virus,” Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has said.

“I appeal to the Prime Minister and the Government to extend the lockdown by at least by one-two weeks and then take a call,” he said.

Referring to a research report by the Boston Consulting Group, he said the research firm felt that India should extend the lockdown till June.

Economy in bad shape

Stating that the State’s economy suffered a beating as the lockdown resulted in huge revenue losses, he said the State’s revenues fell to just ₹1 crore a day as against the average of ₹400 crore.

“Still we need to take tough decisions as we can recover the economy later but not the lives (lost),” he said.

Nizamuddin link

He said the State has identified about 3,000 persons who are directly or indirectly linked to the Nizamuddin meet. “As many as 1,089 had returned from Nizamuddin and the rest who might have come in contact with them,” he said.

Meanwhile, he annulled the salary ‘deferments’ announced for the staff of civic bodies. “For their exemplary service, we are giving them an incentive of ₹7,500 each for about 25,000 employees in the cities and ₹5,000 each for sanitary workers in villages,” he said.

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