Ex-PM Gowda offers suggestions to Modi over Covid

April 26, 2021 15:40

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has called for curtailing election victory celebrations, and postponement of all byelections and local elections by six months as part of measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

All large public gatherings should be banned for the next six months, the Janat Dal-Secular supremo said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi offering a few suggestions to contain the spread.

"Steps should be taken immediately to curtail election victory celebrations in States that have gone to polls this month. Since no state legislature's term is expiring after May this year, all byelections and local elections should be postponed by six months," the Rajya Sabha member said.

During this period, Gowda said, the Election Commission can evolve new rules for conduct of safe elections, and simultaneously, the vaccination programme has to be accelerated.

He assured the Prime Minister that he will support all constructive decisions and initiatives that the Union government may take under his leadership, to contain the pandemic, spread the vaccination programme, and save lives.

Stating that he believes that this is a time to act and act swiftly, Gowda said health administration and Covid management has to be quickly decentralised.

Medical professionals at all levels have to be urgently hired on short contracts to help district administrations, he said, adding, the authority to hire medical and para-medical personnel should be given to district collectors, district health officers and district hospitals.

According to him, it is not sufficient to have a war room at the state-level, in state capitals, but there should be war rooms at all district headquarters.

The focus currently has been on big cities. But there is a greater danger lurking in non-urban districts and taluk centres. Village clusters also need urgent attention. The Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj has to be deployed to coordinate these efforts, he said.

All government departments have a role in this health crisis and not just the Ministry of Health, he suggested.

Gowda said there is no clear messaging on the vaccination front, and there is a lot of confusion among people, especially after the surge of the second wave.

Since many people who had taken the first and second dose of vaccination have also been infected there is lurking cynicism about the vaccines, he said.

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