Amarinder deplores Centre for not announcing relief package for poor

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday termed the 21-day nation-wide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "necessary to save millions of lives" from the deadly COVID-19, but lamented the Centre's "failure" to announce an immediate relief package for the poor and daily wagers.

Reacting to the prime minister Narendra Modi's announcement, the chief minister said it was imperative to break the coronavirus cycle, for which such extreme steps were necessary, as the analysis of several other nations had already shown.

It was, however, equally important to support those left with no means to fulfill their daily basic needs, he said.

The chief minister, while welcoming a Rs 15,000 crore allocation by the Centre to upgrade the health, medical and research facilities in the country, urged Prime Minister Modi to also come out with a comprehensive package immediately to ensure that the citizens of India are not deprived of basic essential services in this three-week period.

At the same time,Amarinder urged people to pledge themselves to fight the COVID-19 war by staying at home, thus protecting themselves, their families, their relatives and friends, and also those lakhs of doctors/nurses/paramedical staff, the police, the media and other service providers who were working 24X7 in the face of extreme risk.

Tough times require tough actions, said Amarinder Singh, appealing to the people to cooperate with the Central and state governments to combat the crisis, for which his government had already imposed a curfew in Punjab on Monday.