Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the present lockdown, implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus, by two weeks.
He said lockdown had helped in containing the spread of the virus to a great extent. “There is no other better solution than this,” he said.
During the lockdown, he said, the government should ensure that farmers were not put to losses, the supply of essential commodities was streamlined and the food processing industry was allowed to function.
Mr Chandrasekhar Rao made these suggestions during the four-hour video conference held by the Prime Minister with all the Chief Ministers on Saturday.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday emphasised that the government should protect the agriculture sector and ensure that there was no shortage of essential commodities during the lockdown enforced to contain the spread of coronavirus.
He said measures should be taken to run rice mills, oil mills and other agriculture-based industries. “India is fighting against the coronavirus unitedly and the fight should continue with the same spirit. International media is also praising the country for its valiant fight against the coronavirus,” he said.
Acknowledging the Centre’s support to the States in the fight against the virus and appreciating the Prime Minister for speaking to Chief Ministers from time to time, he said it was giving a great moral courage to the CMs.
Country’s lifeline
“For our country the lifeline is agriculture. Not only providing food to people, agriculture provides livelihood to many. It’s not possible for any country to feed India with its 135 crore population. We are self-sufficient as far as foodgrains are concerned. This situation should continue. We have to stand by farmers who feed us.”
He wanted agriculture to be linked with MNREGA and the scheme should continue for at least two months.
A policy should be brought by which farmers would pay half the wages for labourers and other half would be from the MNREGA funds. This would support farmers during this difficult period.
By giving rice required for people for the next three months, the FCI godowns in the country could be emptied. The newly procured foodgrains could be stored in these godowns.
In Telangana, 6,849 procurement centres were created at the village-level to prevent crowding of farmers at one place. Only for the procurement of paddy, the government gave ₹25,000 crore bank guarantee.
“We are procuring paddy in the villages and depositing money in the accounts of the farmers directly. The paddy thus procured is milled into rice and supplied to the FCI. To get money from the FCI, it will take four to five months. Till such time, the Centre should take measures so that banks would not put any pressure for the payment of dues,” he said.
‘Strategic policy’
Mr Rao said a strategic economic policy was needed to counter the fallout of the epidemic. The country could fight the global crises in 1918 due to Spanish Flu and the global economic recession in 2008.
RBI should implement quantitative easing policy. Called Helicopter money, this would enable the States and financial institutions to accrue funds and come out of the financial crisis. “Release 5% of funds from the GDP through Quantitative easing Policy,” he suggested.
The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limit for market borrowings should be increased from 3 % to 5 %. The Centre should take initiative to postpone for six months, the monthly interest paid by the States on debts from the Centre, he suggested. Mr Rao wanted a task force be created under the chairmanship of the PM. In the backdrop of the lockdown, an action plan on how to help farmers should be prepared and be implemented to ease the economic situation.
Along with the Chief Minister, Medical and Health Minister Eatala Rajender, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP Mahender Reddy, and Principal Secretary Ramakrishna Rao were present.
