Extending lockdown without concrete measures to tackle virus meaningless: Left parties

The Left parties on Tuesday said extending the lockdown till May 3 without any concrete planning by the government would further increase the suffering of the poor and the marginalised.

"PM listed tasks that the people should implement during the extended lockdown. But nothing concrete on what the government will do. People were waiting for much-needed relief for a large number of our poor, marginalised and migrant labour," said CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Addressing a press conference later, Yechury accused the central government of running away from its responsibility. "We the people" phrase from the Constitution that the PM referred to also includes the government, he said.

He also said while 339 people have died of COVID-19 as per the official records, nearly 200 people have died in the country of hunger, lack of shelter, exhaustion and malnutrition.

"The experience of the three-week lockdown has shown the large-scale spread of hunger and inadequate shelter for a significant section of our people. It is imperative that the government must immediately implement a Rs. 7500 ex-gratia cash transfer to all non-Income Tax paying families and resort to universal distribution of free foodgrains to all needy people. The central government must ensure that no starvation deaths occur," he said.

He also said the rescue package announced by the Modi government was merely one percent of the total GDP while even a far smaller country like Malaysia is spending 16 per cent of the GDP. He also demanded that all registered MNREGA workers should be paid the wages and arrangement should be made to take the migrant workers home.

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac in a tweet listed out three key things that the centre must immediately do. "There is no option other than extending the lockdown. But Centre must learn lessons from the past 3 weeks. 1. Without extensive testing lockdown won't be effective. 2.Without income support compliance will be low. 3. Without additional resources states will be constrained," he said.

CPI general secretary D Raja said while extension of the lockdown was expected, there was hope that the PM in his speech would outline an economic package on how to deal with the livelihood crisis that has emerged due to the lockdown.

"For the people to live, they need livelihood," Raja said.

"Modiji back patted himself on his government's 'timely' response and 'holistic' approach towards tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. He could've also congratulated himself for practising hand washing. He has completely washed his hands off the poor and toiling Indians," tweeted CPI (ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya.

CPI leader and MP Binoy Viswam said the PM failed to address the plight of migrant workers despite claiming that he understood their situation.

"In his near 20-minute address, the Prime Minister stated that he understood the plight of the poor and daily wage worker who is most affected by the lockdown but failed to indicate any relief measures that might alleviate their suffering. Instead, the Prime Minister appealed to the people to stay where they are and not violate the lockdown, despite their sufferings," he said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced that the lockdown across the country will be extended till May 3 to fight the coronavirus pandemic, saying the measure has produced a significant outcome in containing the infection.

India has reported 10,363 cases of the virus infection and 339 deaths so far.