Congress leader and former chief minister Kamal Nath has written to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan urging him to make arrangements to provide free daily essentials to common people impacted by the lockdown in the state.
Meanwhile, commercial hub Indore has emerged as the COVID-19 hotspot of Madhya Pradesh, reporting as many as 37 positive cases in the past 24 hours. The tally of coronavirus positive cases in the district has gone up to 69, taking the total of the state to 86, officials said. Indore has also reported three out of the five deaths in the state till now, the other two being reported from Ujjain district.
Nath, in his letter to the CM, has said that though the state government has issued orders to provide advance ration to the people from public distribution system (PDS) shops, there was no instruction regarding distribution of free ration as announced.
Kamal Nath has said this free distribution should be started immediately given the condition of the common people in the continuing lockdown. The ex-CM has said that not only the usual food grains (wheat and rice), but other daily essentials like pulses, oil, sugar and condiments should also be distributed free to the needy people through the PDS shops.
Nath pointed out that due to complete lockdown, people are also facing problems of grinding wheat and therefore, the government should open some flour mills and provide wheat flour free to the people.
Indore hotspot
With cases surging everyday, district administration has resorted to strict clampdown in Indore. Movements have been totally restricted and no shops including that of vegetables, fruits or milk will open for the next seven days. Milk will be delivered door-to-door between 8.00am and 10.00am everyday.
Officials have said the figure of positives might go up to 200 as samples of people in contact of earlier positive cases are being tested now. District collector Manish Singh has said all preparations were being done to keep the cases as much restricted as possible. Over 600 people have been home quarantined and suspects are being screened constantly and kept in isolation.
However, the administration is facing difficulties in some areas with people resisting the attempts of the health teams to take away people for testing. On Wednesday afternoon, people in Ranipura locality confronted health and police teams after they wanted to take away an elderly lady for testing. There were reports of some stone pelting too. Later, more force was rushed to the spot and the situation brought under control, sources said. People have said they should be given prior information about those who would be taken for testing.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said strict lockdown was being implemented in Indore to keep people safe. He has urged the people of Indore to support the district administration in the fight against the coronavirus.