States facing impediments in procuring rapid testing equipment: Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said states have got little money from the Centre and are facing impediments in the procurement of rapid-testing equipment.

Taking to Twitter, the former finance minister gave a "ground report" of the situation during the ongoing nationwide lockdown, saying banks are open but have stopped giving jewel loans to the middle class.

"Here is a report from the ground: States have got little money from the Centre: GST compensation for Dec-Jan; first instalment of State Disaster Relief Fund; and a share of the Rs 15,000 crore Medical Infrastructure Fund.

"Procurement of rapid testing equipment faces impediments," he wrote on the microblogging website.

"While bank branches are open, many LIC offices are closed. Banks have stopped giving jewel loans, the mainstay for liquidity of middle class families," Chidambaram said.

Another senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh said a new political consensus is needed for addressing questions of administrative decentralisation and reordering of public expenditures that emerge out of big traumas.

"Big traumas trigger fundamental questions. Those that come to mind are: Bold decentralization of administrative and financial authority. Complete reordering of public expenditures and radical reform of public service delivery.

"But for all this a new political consensus is needed," he wrote on Twitter.

The remarks of the opposition party leaders came as the country is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and a nationwide lockdown has been imposed to check the spread of the deadly virus.