GUWAHATI: Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday stated that he is in favour of withdrawing lockdown after completion of third phase on May 17 except hot spot areas with strict compliance of prescribed guidelines.
Addressing a press meet at his residence, Gogoi said, "Most of the countries are lifting lock-down in the world. For example Taiwan, the country which has more people to people, business contact and is near to Wuhan city of China has been able to contain Corona without total lock-down. There were only 440 corona cases out of which 6 died in their country."
"According to me, livelihoods are more important than lives. Without livelihood one can't bear the expenses of preventing him from coronavirus to save his life. We have to live with coronavirus as we have been living with floods, T.B. and other dangerous diseases. The role of the State Govt. has led to economic bankruptcy whereby millions of people are losing jobs, livelihoods and particularly daily wage earners, rickshaw pullers, thelawala, milk-fish producers, animal husbandry, weavers, small businessmen, etc. State Govt. is blindly following the directions of Govt. of India though the situation is quite different in Assam. That is why our demand has been that the states should be taken into confidence by Govt. of India," he added.
Further, the former CM said, "Every state is keen to bring back the stranded people from different parts of the country by train and buses. Till today Govt. of Assam has not taken steps for bringing back them by railway. We have not seen any concrete plan to extend financial help to the vulnerable sections who have lost their livelihoods, jobs and now finding it difficult to meet their two square of meals. Govt. has not yet started the survey of the loss of every individual or group which is very necessary to provide financial help for the survival of those people."
"Even after one and half month, we don't have a clear picture of roadmap of Modiji's Govt. to solve the problem particularly the loss of jobs and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable section of the people of the country. Now questions have been arising whether lock-down is going to do more harm than good. While Modi Govt. could wave of loan of defaulters like Vijay Malya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Ram Dev etc .to the tune of Rs. 68,000 crores. Can't the Govt. of India spend at least Rs. 500 to each labourer along with bearing free railway journey to their respective States. At the initial stage, Modiji did not want the migrant labourers to proceed to their States which was a wrong decision," he asserted.