PM Modi dons home made face mask during virtual meeting with CMs

New Delhi, Apr 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen wearing a home made facemask during his meeting with the Chief Ministers via video conferencing.

The meeting revolved around the lifting of restrictions following the lockdown that would end on April 14. Apart from Modi, several Chief Ministers were also seen wearing the face mask.

During the meeting, Modi said that he was there 24x7 and would stand shoulder to shoulder with all the states. Many CMs said that the lockdown must be extended in a bid to contain the further spread of the pandemic.

The CMs also said that while each state has been responding differently to the crisis, the Centre must take a final call on how to go about lifting restrictions post the lockdown.

During the various meetings that the PM has held in the past few days, officials have also spoken about the economy.

Two key considerations were considered during these deliberations, officials familiar with the development told OneIndia. There is the question of life and there is livelihood and both are equally important.

Officials said that the lockdown needed to be lifted in a staggered manner as it had to be ensured that India goes not go into negative growth. Most officials said that a balance had to be stuck in a situation such as this. Lives have to be saved, but it was also important to revive economic activity, officials told the PM.

Officials suggested that in order to revive economic activity, the nation had to be divided into three zones. The red zone would be the one with the most number of coronavirus cases and these zones would remain locked down. In the yellow zone, where limited number of cases are reported, activity would resume, but the movement would be heavily monitored. In the green zones, where no coronavirus activity is reported, the officials suggested that normalcy should return.

The assessment shows that in India at least 400 districts have not reported any COVID-19 related activity. These districts could be opened up for activity, officials suggested.

However, there shall be no inward or outward movement of people in these districts to ensure that new cases do not crop up the official cited above said.