As India entered the last week of the lockdown imposed to curb Coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held a video conference with the chief ministers on ways to strengthen the COVID-19 containment strategy and stepping up of economic activities in a calibrated manner post the 54-day shutdown.

This is the prime minister’s fifth virtual meeting with state chief ministers on the Coronavirus situation in the country and the consequent lockdown.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were also present along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In his opening remarks, PM Modi spoke about migrants, saying that he understands their need to go home. “It is a challenge for us is to not let COVID-19 spread to villages.” the Prime Minister stressed.

The Prime Minister said the government has stressed that people should stay where they are. “But it is human nature to want to go home and so we had to modify or change our decisions. Despite that, to make sure it doesn’t spread and go to villages, that’s our big challenge,” he said.

The chief ministers, on their part, also briefed the Prime Minister on the Coronavirus situation in their respective states.

Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jahanmohan Reddy informed that 30,000 people in the state have been identified as vulnerable and tested for Coronavirus, while stressing that people need to be prepared to live with the virus till a vaccine is ready.

“We need to come back to normalcy and the coronavirus stigma has to end. Families with positive case is facing social ostracisation. We have to urge people to come forward for self- isolation. We need to prepare people to live with coronavirus till vaccine is ready, we have to create massive awareness to prevent transmit of the virus,” he said.

The chief minister further called for an exit plan from “institutional quarantine”. “…The fear and stigma should end. We have to remove the stigma. We need to tell that 95 per cent of the case is curable.”

Jagan Reddy added that the economy needs to be revived by doing away with restrictions on inter-state transport of goods. He also opined that migrants returning to their native places should be allowed to come back after certain a period of time following social distancing norms.

The Andhra Pradesh CM sought relaxation of lockdown measures, with strict adherence to personal hygiene protocols. He said 9 lakh people are linked to the MSME sector, and urged the Prime Minister to handhold the sector so that the issue of unemployment doesn’t rise.

Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu told PM Modi that the chief ministers of the Northeast states are working together as a team to combat COVID-19. He also sought the PM’s intervention to take the state back on track for investment in Agriculture and Horticulture sectors.

Tamil Nadu CM K Palaniswamy, in the video conference, sought early release of NHM funds, Rs 2000 crpre special grant to Tamil Nadu and demanded pending GST amount to be released.

Speaking at the meeting, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Bhagel informed about migrants from Gujarat reaching the state today, while adding that all of the stranded people are being brought back at the government’s expense.

Bhagel further said that the Centre and States should work together during this time of crisis and sought permission from Central government to allow states to define red, orange and green zones, which will facilitate effective and time-bound alert.

The Chhattisgarh CM also sought funds for initiating relief work.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani entended his support to the lockdown saying that the move has helped to contain COVID-19 spread and also praised the Aarogya Setu App saying it has helped the state in surveillance immensely.

He, however, opined that the lockdown should be limited to containment zones and economic activities should be restarted with safety measures in place. He also called for opening of schools after summer holidays and restarting of public transport gradually.

Rupani also thanked PM Modi for all the support extended to the state, which is the second hit state after Maharashtra.

The Gujarat CM also informed that the state is encouraging Ayurvedic homemade remedies as suggested by Ministry of Ayush to boost immunity of COVID positive cases.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has, however, opposed resumption of train services. “Train services should not be allowed… We want Centre to devise proper strategy and put train service on hold.”

Rao expressed fears that resuming train services could spread Coronavirus, and screening would be difficult. Like many other chief ministers, he also opined that lockdown should be confined to containment zones and be continued. He also called for immediate response from the Centre on defining zones.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in her response, slammed the Centre saying that it should “not play politics during this crucial time”.

At the meeting, Home Minister Amit Shah spoke about the Aarogya Setu App, its importance and the need to popularise the downloading of the mobile application, as it will help in tracking the Coronavirus. He also urged the chief ministers to initiate measures to popularise the importance of the app.

In the biggest single-day jump, India on Monday recorded 4,213 cases of Coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 67,152 in the country.

As many as 97 deaths were reported in the same period taking the toll to 2,206.

Of the total Coronavirus cases, 44,029 are active cases and as many as 20,917 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged.

Meanwhile, in a major step towards easing the nationwide lockdown, the Railways plans to gradually restart limited passenger trains from May 12. The booking for reservation in these Indian Railways special trains will start at 4 pm today and will be available only on the IRCTC website.

Passenger services, suspended since the lockdown began March 25, will start with 15 “special” trains (total of 30 journeys) departing from Delhi and connecting cities in Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Tripura.

PM had his last call with the state CMs on April 27 during which he discussed the ext plan for the second lockdown which ended on May 3. He had asked the state Chief Ministers to chalk out an exit plan by marking districts as red, orange and green zones to indicate the level and intensity of the COVID-19 infection.

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