On Monday, a digital media organization put out a report that claimed that the current lockdown might be extended by the government. As per the report, the lockdown which was supposed to contain the lockdown has been violated with the mass exodus of the migrant laborers and hence the PMO is considering extending the period. However, the Cabinet Secretary rubbished the reports.
Since the lockdown was announced, the migrant laborers are out of work and hence no place to stay and no access to food by virtue of lack of money. In what is being called the great march, migrant laborers from metro cities have started walking towards their hometown.
Many from Delhi and Noida were seen walking with their families to Uttar Pradesh. After mounting pressure, the Uttar Pradesh government and the Delhi government have made arrangements to either provide them with shelter and food or make necessary travel plans.
As per the ‘exclusive’ report, the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Modi on 24th March said that there is a possibility of the lockdown by a week due to the exodus of the migrant laborers. The report also attributed quotes to various officials without naming them. One of the unnamed officials credited in the report belonged to the COVID-19 Task Force.
Cabinet Secretary Clarifies
Very soon, the Prasar Bharati News Service (PBNS) put out a tweet clarifying the report to be false. The tweet said that the Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba denied any such thoughts about the lockdown when PBNS contacted him.
The PBNS in its tweet said,
“Fake news alert. PBNS got in touch with the Cabinet Secretary on this news article. The Cabinet Secretary expressed surprise and said there is no such plan of extending the lockdown.”
FAKE NEWS ALERT ?
PBNS got in touch with the Cabinet Secretary on this news article.
The Cabinet Secretary expressed surprise & said that there is no such plan of extending the lockdown. https://t.co/CrLlp6f7X5
— Prasar Bharati News Services (@PBNS_India) March 30, 2020
The lockdown is scheduled to end on April 14th, 2020. The coronavirus outbreak in India has raised in the past week seeing at least 100 confirmed cases a day and the death toll to raising every day. The country currently stands at over 1,100 confirmed cases and 27 deaths. The number of people recovered successfully has crossed 100. However, the number of positive cases in the world has crossed 700,000 with over 33,000 deaths.
