Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Monday claimed that lockdown isn’t easy and has rather beeen a harsh experience for daily wage labourers, small businesses and marginalized sections. These people are devoid of their livelihood and with less saving, find the lockdown financially crippling. With transport suspended, railways and road transport agencies suffer losses to the tunes of crores. Small businesses and daily wage labourers are the most affected; nevertheless, lockdown is also important keeping in mind the health and life of the citizens. The very thought of their plight is enough to break our hearts as there was also the outpouring of support from fellow Indians for their inspiring resolve, he said. Former Minister demanded Govt ‘master plan’ on giving some relaxations to industries, construction sector and other economic activities during the ongoing lockdown. A countrywide lockdown is a setback for economic growth and development of the nation.
Meantime Bhalla on Monday continued the distribution of ration and other essential items among needy families of Gandhi Nagar constituency at Sherghar, Panchayat Khaswa, Panchayat, Bahu Fort in Kalika Colony, Rajiv Nagar and Digiana.Prominent among those who accompanied Bhalla included Sarpanch Kashmir Singh, DCC General Secretary Distt Aman Bawa, DCC General Secretary Distt Jatin Vashisht, Suman Choudhary Beant Singh Khalsa, Rangeel Singh, Basant Kumar, Iqbal Singh Ajay Kumar, Lal Chand, Subhash Chander, Sohan Lal, Om Prakash, Rohit Choudhary Jasbir Singh Jassi, Sat Pal, Janak Raj, beside others.
Though the lockdown in India is harsh on marginalized sections of the society; people from different walks of life and several organizations have come forward for help. As soon as the lockdown was imposed, many prominent personalities and business houses have paid thousands of crore of rupees as donation to the Prime Minister Relief Fund. This money should be spending on food and providing monetary help to the poor during the lockdown. Government officers are distributing food packages, making sure that no person is left without food in these difficult times. People of India have also displayed a great amount of respect for their emergency services personnel and medical professionals by felicitating them on daily basis.Bhalla called for devising a robust mechanism for door to door survey under Swasthya Nidhi for effectively combating the spread of COVID-19 in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He demanded mandatory PPEs for screening teams as they are the frontline warriors and are vulnerable to the virus. He stressed on the need to increase the sample collection teams to intensify the screening and called for incorporating IEC material, messages and jingles in surveys and publicize widely through print media, electronic, social media and other effective forms of media.