Daily News Capsule

In the meeting held on Sunday among the chief ministers, Uddhav Thackeray and the state task force were indecisive about the complete lockdown in Maharashtra. However, it can’t be predicted that how long it would help in controlling the pandemic. 

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Uddhav Thackeray will have a meeting with the finance minister and senior officials in the upcoming two days, about the complete lockdown, as an initiative in taking the stock burden and to think about providing some relief to the daily wagers, laborers, and underprivileged. 

As of the Sunday meeting, the members of the state task force expressed a need for strict rules to “break the chain” of covid-19. Nonetheless, when some members of the task force were on the idea of complete lockdown, some were saying that it will not help in doing much to control the situation. However, one suggestion of the members was to lock the districts where health infrastructure is on the verge of collapse. Another suggestion was to impose the penalty over violating the covid-19 rules. CM Uddhav Thackeray discussed whether the lockdown should be for eight or fifteen days.   

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As per the saying of a senior official, it has been already decided to urge the completer lockdown, and restrictions have been given to the state administration to draft SOPs to secure that the health services are not affected. Although the date of implementation is not decided yet, it will be in the next 2-3 days, an official said. 

A task force member stated “scientifically, lockdowns have helped in the first instance. It may also work to some extent in the second instance, but a lot depends on what we want to do after and during the lockdown to build infrastructure”. Another member said” a complete lockdown would be pointless at this stage. For 10% who are violating norms, why should the entire 90% suffer? We have to find a way to penalize the 10%”. 

Also, it was thought that CM may announce a complete lockdown on Sunday, after the meeting along with the weekend lockdown. But the decision was dismissed. Hence, the weekend lockdown in Maharashtra will continue except for the essential services open.