PM to hold meeting with CMs
NEWDELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a video conference with all chief ministers next week, for consultations about emerging from the lockdown and the increasing number of coronavirus disease cases across the country.
The meeting, sixth since the PM announced a national lockdown on March 24 to arrest the spread of the virus, will be held over two days – June 16 and 17 – to cover 21 CMs on day 1 and the remaining on the second day.
According to the schedule for the meeting, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh will begin the consultation process on Tuesday afternoon and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will be the last to address it on Wednesday
evening. HT has reviewed the schedule.
“The Prime Minister will listen to us,’’ said a state minister who did not want to be identified, when asked about the agenda of the meeting.
The last meeting was held on May 11 ahead of the deadline of the lockdown, and chief ministers had asked for greater autonomy to decide the future course of action to deal with the pandemic.
Since then, each state has taken its own decision about restrictions, with the Union ministry of home affairs laying out broader guidelines. For instance, while announcing the `unlockdown’ towards the end of May, the MHA allowed inter-state movement of passengers but left each state to decide whether they wanted to go ahead with it or not. While Delhi allowed it, Haryana was initially hesitant and Uttar Pradesh still restricts movement from Delhi.
The meeting comes at a time when the number of infections has been on the rise, especially in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. “We will know more details tomorrow but we are expecting him to discuss ‘unlocking’,” said an official associated with a Chief Minister’s office.