Hyderabad, April 11 (Maxim News): Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend present lockdown being implemented to prevent spread of Corona Virus (COVID-19), for another two weeks. The CM said that the food processing industry should be allowed to function to ensure that farmers are not to put to losses and there is no problem for the supply of essential commodities During the lockdown. The CM made this plea during the video conference held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with all the Chief Ministers of country.
During the four hour-long videoconference, CM KCR made several suggestions to the PM. The CM expressed his opinion on issues related to lives of people, agriculture, finance etc. He said that India was fighting against the Corona Virus unitedly and added that the fight should continue with the same spirit while noting that International media had also praised that the country was fighting against the Corona virus quite valiantly.
The CM also said that the states were getting required support from the Centre to fight against the Corona and added that the PM was also speaking from time to time with the CMs of the country while noting that the support of the PM was giving them a great moral courage to us. He hoped that India would be victorious over its war against Corona. KCr said that the Lockdown had helped in containing the spread of Corona to a great level and added that It was better to extend the lockdown for two more weeks while stressing on the point that . There was no other better solution than this.
Commenting on agriculture sector, KCR said that its lifeline was agriculture. ”It is 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 food grains are concerned. This situation should continue. We have stand by farmer who feeds us. To protect the agriculture sector and ensure there is no shortage of essential commodities, the food processing units should function. Measures should be taken to run Rice Mills, Oil Mills, and other agriculture based industries,” he noted .
KCR urged the PM to link agriculture with the MNREGA and added that the scheme should continue for at least two months while stating that the center should bring a policy by which farmers would pay half the wages for labourers and other half would be from the MNAREGA funds. With this we will be able to support farmers at the difficult times, he said.
The CM said that the agriculture yield was in several crore tonnes all over the country. “The primary responsibility for us is to procure them. There is no place where we can store the procured food grains. By giving rice required for people for the next three months, the FCI Godowns in the country can be emptied. The newly procured food grains can be stored in these Godowns,” he said.
The CM further said that, to prevent crowding of farmers at one place, in State 6, 849 procurement centres were created at the village level and the food grains were procured from there. He said that the state government gave Rs 25,000 Crore-Bank guarantee only for the procurement of Paddy,. He said that they were procuring Paddy in the villages and depositing money in the accounts of the farmers directly. “The Paddy thus procured is made 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 stated.
Referring to the 1918 Spanish Flu, he said that there was an economic crisis all over the world and added a similar economic recession took place in the year 2008 all over the globe.” Due to proper measures we should get over it. Even now we are facing financial problems. To counter this we need a strategic economic policy. RBI should implement quantitative easing policy. This is called Helicopter money. This will facilitate the States and financial institutions to accrue funds. We can come out the financial crisis. Release 5 per cent of funds from the GDP through Quantitative easing Policy,” the CM said. .
KCR urged the PM to increase FBRM from 3 per cent to 5 per cent. He also urged the PM that the centre should take initiative to postpone the monthly interest being paid by the States on debts from the Centre for six months. He further urged the PM to create a task Force under the Chairmanship of the PM and prepare an action plan on how to help farmers, the policy to be implemented on the economic situation.
State Medical and Health Minister Etela Rajender, the Chief Secretary of the state Somesh Kumar, DGP Mahender Reddy and Principal secretary of the state Ramakrishna Rao and others were also present during the video conference. (Maxim News)
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