Hyderabad, May 6 (PTI) Telangana has no plans to impose a lockdown in the state as it will cripple public life as well as the economy, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said on Thursday.
He further said the past experience reveals that lockdown is not effective in controlling COVID-19.
According to Rao, Telangana is the most happening state, about 25 to 30 lakh migrant labourers are earning their livelihood in the state and their lives were ruined during the first spell of lockdown in 2020.
"If these people (workers) are dislocated once again it will be a huge loss to the state as Telangana needs a huge number of workers during the harvesting season.
What will happen to farmers (if they dont get labourers)? By imposing lockdown, the government itself would be creating havoc," an official release quoted Rao as saying.
However, the state government will take preventive measures such as setting up micro level containment zones wherever the number of cases are high, it noted.
"Keeping in mind the past experiences, the state government has decided not to impose lockdown," it added.
The CM appealed to people to be self disciplined and adhere to the COVID-19 rules to prevent the spread of the disease.
Meanwhile, Rao spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone seeking the allotted quota of antiviral drug remdesivir to be released to the state immediately.
Rao said the state was receiving only 4,900 injections of remdesivir and the same has to be increased to 25,000.
He also sought to enhance the oxygen supply to the state to 500 tonnes.
Similarly, Telangana uses 2 to 2.5 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses per day and the supply of the antidote needs to be maintained from the Centre accordingly, he said.
KCR also spoke to Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who assured him of necessary supplies to the state.
