Rajnath Singh chairs GoM meeting as Centre plans lockdown relaxations from April 20

A meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) over COVID-19 was held at Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence on Saturday as the lockdown relaxations in non-hotspot zones comes into effect on Monday, that will see up to 45 per cent of the economy becoming operational again.

After the meeting, Rajnath Singh tweeted that the ministers discussed ways to mitigate the hardships faced by the people and the role ministries can play in providing relief to people.

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Singh further said that the guidelines to allow limited activities and the measures announced by RBI were also appreciated.

https://x.com/rajnathsingh/status/1251409360917417984

The members deliberated on allowing partial economic activity in non-hotspot zones from April 20, as proposed by the Centre. The GoM obtained feedback from various ministers on the COVID-19 situation.

According to government sources, the meeting also examined suggestions received to enlist services of retired doctors, health professionals and medical students in the final year of their graduation.

The GoM noted that these measures will allow resumption of graded economic activity keeping in view local conditions “within the ambit of measures to prevent the spread of the virus”.

During the meeting, the disbursement of Rs 31,000 crore to more than 33.25 crore beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana to mitigate the problems of economically weaker sections of population was “strongly appreciated”.

All GoM members felt the need to reiterate an appeal to fellow Indians to observe strict social distancing norms and refrain from participating in mass prayers or religious congregations.

Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan were among the attendees. Also in attendance were Prahlad Joshi, Gajendra Singh Shekawat, Hardeep Puri, Ram Vilas Paswan and G Kishan Reddy.

This is the fifth time that this Group of Ministers has met since a lockdown was imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on March 24 to contain the Coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier on April 7, ahead of a decision to extend the lockdown till May 3, Rajnath Singh had chaired a Group of Ministers meeting to decide the plan of action by the Centre on COVID-19.

Discussion on availability and smooth passage of essential supplies and particularly to Corona hotspots were discussed in the meeting.

The Centre has asserted India’s response to COVID-19 has been “proactive” and that the government has followed a “graded approach” towards the pandemic.

It has claimed that the number of Coronavirus cases in the country could have increased to 8.2 lakh by April 15 had India not implemented a lockdown and other containment measures.