Haryana 'Taking Critical Steps’: Dushyant Chautala Rules Out Lockdown Amid Covid Surge

Chautala assured “every single person working in Haryana” that they do not need to worry as “the state is not moving towards a lockdown”.

Dushyant Chautala | File Image

Gurgaon: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Wednesday ruled out a lockdown in the state despite the surge in Covid-19 cases and said the government is “taking critical steps towards” ensuring the system run smoothly so that the pandemic does not spread.

Chautala, who was interacting with the media after flagging off an ‘Advanced Cardiac Care Ambulance’ at Gurgaon’s Artemis Hospital, assured “every single person working in Haryana” that they do not need to worry as “the state is not moving towards a lockdown”.

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“The state is trying to only make the system run smoothly so that the pandemic does not spread. The state is taking critical steps towards this. The Prime Minister himself, during a discussion with Chief Ministers of states regarding this, had said that we will not move towards a lockdown, we have to only curtail, and for curtailing, I feel night curfew is an important step,” he added.

Stating that “testing has increased across the country and Haryana has been a leader in this”, Chautala said: “No state develops more medical facilities than us, and it is a result of this that our recovery rate is amongst the top in the country. We are trying that, in this manner, the covid situation can be monitored, controlled, and cut off.”

The Deputy Chief Minister also talked about the farmers’ agitation that has been underway since November last year against the three farm laws brought in by the Centre and said that he would appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume discussions with the protesting farmers.

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“Today, people have been sitting at the borders of our state for 4-4.5 months. The number of cases is increasing there also…I will appeal to the Prime Minister that some senior ministers are included in the team and a discussion held with their leaders. I appeal to the leaders as well that they also keep the conversation going as without that, there will be no solution,” Chautala said.

“Today, procurement has happened, money has gone into the account of farmers, did any mandis close? Did any farmer not get MSP?…I have not understood till today that people who run shops and also become farmer leaders, maybe somewhere were the masterminds of running this agitation initially,” he added.

Over 40,000 people in Haryana have tested positive over the last month. The state government had on Monday imposed a night curfew in Haryana amid a surge in coronavirus cases.