Lockdown has affected badly few marginalized communities in Patiala-Mohindru
Dr Pankaj Mohindru
Patialvis are debating about next move of the Punjab government and its forthcoming strategy on whether to end the statewide lockdown or to extend it. Prime Minister Modi has given a hint at an extension beyond April 14 in an all-party meeting but will take a final decision after video conferencing with all the state CMs on April 11. Many CMs have suggesting a staggered lockdown, but with a country this huge and having a daily surge of hundreds of cases the final decision is going to be a tough one. Meanwhile, if the Prime Minister allows CMs to take their decision themselves (on lock-down) depending upon the situation in their respective states, then CM, Punjab has to take a call instantly (on roll-back) in few districts which are now free from COVID-19 for smooth Rabi harvesting.
The Punjab Government may decide to lift the corona virus lockdown in few districts of state like Patiala which is now free of the virus infection. According to officials, there is one COVID-19 case in Patiala district as of now. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced yesterday that a Task Force would soon be set up to find ways for the state to gradually get out of the unprecedented lockdown. Although, there were more than 100 COVID-19 positive cases in the state till Wednesday.
At present, no one knows when the lockdown will really end. The businessmen and shopkeepers in Patiala had initially welcomed the lockdown for 21 days and they were ready to bear the business loss to defeat the pandemic but now it is apprehended that they might not be able to pay salaries to their employees if this lockdown would persist any further. It is pertinent to note that most of the shopkeepers and businessmen in Patiala are not able to earn anything in this period of distress. It is appealed to the Punjab government to take a humane and realistic view in this wake and should undertake to disperse relief package to underprivileged strata to overcome this ongoing period of crisis.
The other major concern is private schools are not paying salaries to their employees and teachers as the education department has ordered schools to give a 30-day window to parents to pay fee, but it appears that the interests of teachers in private schools have not been taken into consideration while passing this order. Private schools will be in a position to pay monthly salaries only after the timely collection of fee. Punjab Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla has been personally ensuring strict action against the violating schools for defying government orders but it is appealed to him to make sure that Patiala private schools pay their employees salary timely and those violating should also be served notice. Employees of private schools are left high and dry due to the decision of education department.
Mohindru, put emphasis strongly that government should be far-sighted on this critical stage to combat the spread of Covid-19. He said that if the government wanted to carry on with this lockdown even for a day, it should have relief measures first in this disastrous period. He said the final decision of the government would be based on a tradeoff primarily between mainly two issues, firstly the risk of the Infection to Patiavis (due to rollback of lockdown) and secondly their worsening economic condition. The optimal middle path is to permit royal city residents to go about their business and move about within the district and not from one district to another, after April 14. This approval for Patiavis should be with riders that every citizen will be compulsory wearing masks when ever stepping out from their houses and also maintaining a social distancing of more than one meter. The suggested measures are required to be imposed sternly by the local administration to substantially reduce the further spread of Corona virus.
The writer-Dr Pankaj Mohindru (Columnist) is a Professor in Punjabi University, Patiala and is an expert in the field of Human Resource Management and Artificial Intelligence and is guiding research in this field.
(The views expressed are personal)
April,9,2020
