New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired an all-party meeting on the growing concern surrounding Covid-19. Many parties including Congress and Akali Dal had skipped the meeting. The PM urged all the parties to 'rise about politics' to combat Covid-19 as a team.
Modi, while addressing the meeting said that India is in a better position than many other countries in terms of the ratio of the population affected by the Corona virus. Having said that, the PM also pressed on the need to remain vigilant as the virus is resurfacing in many countries like the United Kingdom. Modi also said that India will soon be getting vaccines from other companies.
The meeting was attended by many opposition parties including the Samajwadi Party (SP), Shiv Sena, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and others. TMC and Shiv Sena made a demand for more vaccines for Maharashtra and West Bengal, respectively.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan gave a presentation on Covid-19 which lasted for about three hours. This presentation was followed by suggestions from all the parties.
TRS leader Nama Nageswara Rao who was present in the meeting urged the centre to boost up the vaccination drive as the second wave had also hit the rural areas.
Congress, Akali Dal and the Left parties were among the major parties that skipped the meeting. Congress' Malikarjun Kharge said that the Congress is not boycotting the meeting but it will not attend as his party wants the government to present the facts on the floor of both houses of Parliament.
"We want a discussion in the House as well as outside the House with all the floor leaders. I am constantly meeting the chief ministers and all kinds of discussions are happening in different forums. So I also want to meet the floor leaders as House is going on and it will be convenient and we can talk about it (the pandemic) face-to-face," the PM had said.
(With PTI inputs)