Hope PM puts out comprehensive plan to deal with post-lockdown situation at meeting with CMs: Cong

The Congress on Sunday said it hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi puts out a comprehensive and holistic plan as regards the exit strategy for the ongoing lockdown and thereafter at his meeting with chief ministers on Monday.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari also questioned the government's testing strategy for COVID-19 and wondered why the country was conducting only 39,000 tests a day, against its capacity of one lakh tests.

"Is there an attempt to either play down the magnitude of the problem or is the government unsure that if we go in for enhancing the testing capacity, then it does not have the capacity to deal with its implications?" he asked at a press briefing through video-conferencing.

"We hope that the prime minister puts out a comprehensive, holistic strategy in dealing with the lockout-exit and the situation for the next three months, during his meeting with chief ministers on Monday," Tewari said.

He said till the time there is no national plan to deal with disasters or pandemics, states cannot formulate plans to deal with issues post-lockdown.

The Congress leader said there has to be a national plan as well as plans for every state and district to deal with the situation in the next three months as, according to experts, COVID-19 is here to stay at least for a while and one has to deal with it.

He also questioned the government on whether the rate of random-testing was deliberately kept low at 39,000, despite having the capacity of one lakh tests per day.

He asked the government whether it has a strategy to deal with the migrant workers, who are struck in quarantine centres at state borders.

The Congress leader said there has to be a modus operandi to allow these workers to reach their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.