- From today, India as a nation would recommence the process of forging ahead after a mammoth proportioned lockdown induced pause, one of the stringently enforced across the world. Yes, the country did undergo tremendous constraints especially millions of migrant laborers and workers who were deprived of livelihood, dignity and respect. Nonetheless, there was a concerted urgings from the industries to kick-start the economic engine in the face of growing revenue concerns afflicting divergent sectors.
PC: gulfnews
- Amidst such a backdrop, the State Governments were collectively piling pressure on the Central Government to ease the restrictions to facilitate stalled economic activity to reboot. Pressure was obviously mounting on the respective Governments across the country is stating the obvious. Apparently, it appears the Central Government had to cede ground to the increasing clamor going by the severely diluted guidelines issued by the Union Home Ministry.
- Understandably, classification of zones as Red, Orange and Green is a logical step but pursuing fine prints of the exhaustive guidelines would highlight certain shortcomings and grey areas requiring immediate corrections. Present guidelines are not only most susceptible for possible breach but also appear as offering an open invitation for compromising the safety/health protocols. Come to think of it what unknown might emerge when enforcement gets diluted?
PC: Ananya Varma
- Statistics available shows that the virulent virus has plateaued and is linear without showing exponential growth as predicted. Credible reports emerging suggests the virus is expected to peak in the 2nd week of May and subsequently would come down to manageable proportions. Lockdown measures was primarily introduced to allow strengthening of healthcare infrastructure as also to procure equipment/kits and be prepared to combat aggressively precisely keeping this in mind.
- Indications point out that the country has significantly succeeded in achieving this particular objective. Conversely, severely diluted lockdown 3.0 measures renders the very objective of fighting the pandemic impotent when the virus is predicted to hit a peak in the coming weeks. Enforcement agencies will be in no position to ensure adherence to these guidelines for police and Corporation officials are overstretched and are at their tether’s end.
PC: Times of India
- Metro cities are the worst affected and many viz. Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore are classified as Red Zones. Allowing unregulated movements of men and material crisscrossing the zones would defeat the very purpose of lockdown measures so assiduously enforced till now. God forbid, what if the dreaded virus spirals out of control in the absence of strict enforcement? The entire country will be back to square one starting at crises.
- At the cost of sounding alarmist and pessimistic, lockdown 3.0 should have been enforced on previous similar lines for the next two weeks. For lives outbids livelihood by a distance. Any takers?
