PM Modi must devolve power to win coronavirus battle, or there'll be calamity: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the Central government must start taking the transparent decisions and tell people what criteria it would use to take a call on lockdown 3 after May 17. While addressing the video press conference amid a peaking coronavirus graph, Rahul Gandhi said that the Prime Minister must start devolving powers to states and the Chief Ministers must start trusting the district magistrates to fight COVID-19. “If we keep this fight in PMO we will lose. The PM must devolve power. If we centralise, there will be a calamity. The PM has to trust CMs, CMs must trust DMs,” Rahul Gandhi said while asking for urgent direct cash transfer to the poorest people and an economic package for the job-generating MSME sector. “A national transition out of lockdown is needed and it’s a very serious challenge. It requires cooperation between the Centre and states and the PM must start seeing the CMs and district magistrates as partners. Red zones are being currently designated centrally where they should actually be designated at the state level,” Gandhi said. Rahul Gandhi said that lockdown opening was not a switch-off-switch-on issue but a serious challenge that requires a national transition. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that after lockdown, coronavirus was being viewed as dangerous and deadly by all. Also Read | Punjab: Indian Air Force fighter aircraft crashes in Nawanshahr “The disease is dangerous for some groups, for one percent of people, including the elderly, and people with chronic conditions. For the remaining 99 percent, it is not deadly but the disease has caused fear. Unless the government removes this fear it won’t be able to open the lockdown. Even if it opens the lockdown no one is going to come out,” Rahul Gandhi said. -PTC News