PM Modi is working for 18-19 hours, spoke at 1 am to review pandemic situation: Piyush Goyal

Updated: Monday, April 19, 2021, 16:50 [IST]

New Delhi, Apr 19: In a recent development, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, on Monday, said that the Centre is working round the clock to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus situation in the country.

Speaking to a news agency, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working 18-19 hours a day and has been reviewing the preparedness about COVID-19 even after returning from a campaign in West Bengal.

"The Centre is working round-the-clock to support the state government in COVID management. Prime Minister is working for 18-19 hours. After returning from the campaign, he reviewed the situation of the pandemic in India. He called me at 1 am (yesterday) to take details of the situation," Goyal said.

The Union minister further urged that politics should not be played around the COVID-19 situation in the country and added that he felt 'pained' when people from a 'certain political party' tried to give political colour to the issue.

"Politics should not be played over this (COVID management). The central government has been fighting a battle against COVID-19 without any discrimination. I felt bad when some people and a prominent political party tried to give political colours to the issue," Goyal said.

His indirect reference was directed towards Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who alleged that the Centre was giving 'preferential treatment' to some states. In her opening remarks during an address to the Congress Working Committee, she said that many of Congress chief ministers had written to the Centre seeking relief.

On Saturday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik, posted a tweet asked Goyal how much Oxygen was produced in the country and what quantity of it was being supplied to Maharashtra.

In can be seen that Maharashtra is one of the worst COVID-19 affected states in India. On Sunday, the country reported the highest-ever single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with 2,61,500 new COVID-19 cases and 1,501 deaths in the past 24 hours.