'Need to focus on economy as well'

As India enters the final week of the lockdown Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday conveyed to chief ministers that the country will have to give importance to the economy as well as continue the fight against the Novel CoronavirusIn a videoconference with the chief ministers fourth such interaction since March 22 when he first spoke to them on the pandemic Modi also highlighted the importance for states to enforce prescribed guidelines strictly in the Coronavirus hotspots the government said in a statementThe PM underlined that the nationwide lockdown has yielded positive results as the country has managed to save thousands of lives in the past oneandahalf months it said The PM said that the country has seen two lockdowns till now both different in certain aspects and now we have to think of the way ahead He said that as per experts the impact of Coronavirus will remain visible in the coming months the statement addedModi also said that masks and face covers will become part of lives of people in the days ahead adding everyones aim must be to ensure rapid response under the current circumstances He emphasised on the importance of the use of technology as much as possible The situation in many countries including India was almost similar at the start of March However due to timely measures India has been able to protect many people the statement said quoting the Prime MinisterCRPF reaches out to cops over jawans arrestThe CRPF has taken up with the Karnataka Police the unpleasant case of alleged manhandling and handcuffing of its CoBRA commando by cops and has sent a team to followup on the matter officials said on Monday The CoBRA unit of the CRPF specialises in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare The force has written a letter to Karnataka Director General of Police DGP Praveen Sood stating that the unpleasant situation could have been avoided had the state police taken the CRPF hierarchy into confidence before making the arrest of the jawan on April 23 in Belagavi districtAs govts decide on next plan of action SC rejects petition The SC on Monday declined to entertain a petition seeking direction to the Centre to conduct en masse doortodoor testing for COVID19 and challenging the validity of PM CARES fund and termed it having political colour Kanpur a Corona hotspot With 33 more Corona positive cases emerging in the past 24 hours Kanpur is now a major COVID19 hotspot in UP after Agra The tally of Corona positive cases in Kanpur is now 185 and the city has 25 hotspotsLockdown extension Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das on Monday said that the COVID19 lockdown should be extended for another month There is a need for the extension of lockdown and it should further be extended by one month said Das after attending the videoconference of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers of all states COVID cess on ultrarich Former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday suggested imposing COVID cess on the ultra rich to offset the loss of revenue as he called for citizencentric measures and lower the cost of living to help those affected by the lockdown Relaxations in Meghalaya The Meghalaya government on Monday relaxed a number of activities including sale of essential goods courier services for essential goods ecommerce operations in essential goods and Common Service Centres during the lockdown periodCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever