Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday reiterated several of his requests made earlier to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including release of funds and providing more PCR kits. The State is planning to increase the number of testing for COVID-19 to 10,000 a day.
Mr. Palaniswami also requested Mr. Modi to announce a relief package to ease the immediate burden on the power sector, which would help distressed discoms.
“I had requested funds for procuring medical equipment during our video conference, as well as through my letters. Please sanction the funds immediately,” he said in a fax message to the Prime Minister.
An official release said Mr. Modi spoke to Chief Ministers of States, who he has not spoken to so far during the video conference meetings held earlier. “Due to paucity of time, all other CMs were requested by the PM to send their comments through fax message,” it added.
As on Monday, a total of 87,605 samples have been tested and 1,885 persons were found COVID-19 positive, the CM said. Effective treatment had ensured that the mortality rate is only 1.2% and 1,020 patients have been discharged which works out to an encouraging 54%, he added.
“Presently, the State has 30 government and 11 private labs for COVID-19 testing, with a testing capacity of 7,500 tests per day. We are planning to increase it to 10,000 and request the Government of India to supply more number of PCR testing kits,” Mr. Palaniswami said.
He reiterated that the fiscal deficit limits of 3% of GSDP be revised to 4.5% for 2019-20 and 2020-21 and the additional borrowing of 33% above the permitted level for the fiscal year 2019-20 be allowed for 2020-21.
Pointing out that Tamil Nadu had a large number of MSME units with many labourers, he requested for extending support to the sector for payment of salaries to their employees, payment of PF and ESI dues on their behalf and waiver of interest on term loans and working capital loans for a period of six months. “Payment of GST Advance Tax and IT may be deferred for six months to help the MSMEs,” he added.
The CM also requested to release the GST compensation for December-January at once and also 50% of the 2020-21 Finance Commission grants to the urban and rural local bodies be released at the earliest. “The Ways and Means limit of the States which was increased by 30% by RBI, should be doubled and the advances availed in the fiscal year 2020-21 should be made interest-free,” he said.
Mr. Palaniswami also requested an ad-hoc grant of ₹1,000 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) immediately to procure medical and protective material.
“The Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund (CMPRF) may be made eligible to receive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contribution under Schedule-III of the Companies Act, 2013.” He also requested to provide an additional allocation of food grains free of cost for all cardholders, including the NPHH beneficiaries, under PMGKAY Scheme, instead of ₹22 per kg.
He also sought transport subsidy to the Farmer Producers Organisations, so as to take the farmers’ produce directly to the consumers. He also wanted the CMR subsidy of ₹1,321 crore to be released early, to facilitate paddy procurement. Besides, he sought permission for payment of wages to the MGNREGS workers by cash at the village-level by the panchayat secretaries, which would help the poor during this lockdown period as well as prevent over-crowding in banks.
‘42 companies have started production’
Elaborating on various measures taken by the Tamil Nadu government towards the fight against COVID-19, 42 companies have started their production presently, following Tamil Nadu government’s special incentive package that included capital subsidy, interest subvention, among others to promote manufacturing of COVID-19 related medical equipment and drugs.
