CM Vijayan leading virus fight: Welcome Centre’s package, but Kerala will need much more

“The package announced by the Centre is a welcome measure. And we have decided to make use of every scheme to ensure maximum relief to the people. However, the Centre has to go further. As all of you know, it is the state governments, which directly deal with the crisis. We interact with people, and understand the real nature of their difficulties,” Vijayan said in an interview with The Indian Express.

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The Kerala government, he said, has submitted a proposal before the central government, which includes a request to enhance its borrowing limit at this trying time. “During the Prime Minister’s video conference with chief ministers, I had pointed out some measures to support the states. I would expect the central government to understand the whole gamut of issues and respond positively,” he said.

Kerala, which has been fighting to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus ever since the first case was reported in January after students returned from Wuhan, has announced a series of packages despite the “acute shortage of resources”, Vijayan said.

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“But that should not prevent the government from bringing relief to the people. This was the principle on which we announced the Rs 20,000 crore package,” Vijayan said. The programme included a health package, loan assistance, free foodgrains, advance payment of welfare pension, increased allocation for MNREGS, subsidised meals, tax relief, and more time to pay tax arrears.

Kerala’s “well-knit system of local self governments and their participation” have come of great help since the first phase of the outbreak, the chief minister said.

Loans worth Rs 2,000 crore are being made available to families with the help of Kudumbasree, a community organisation of neighbourhood groups of women in the state. “We will not charge any interest on these loans. We had adopted a similar measure after the (2018) floods. This had helped thousands of families to come back to their normal life,” the chief minister said.

Vijayan explained the ‘Kerala model’ in the fight against the novel coronavirus that has triggered the COVID-19 global pandemic. The state is currently focused on containing the spread of the disease by taking all measures to disconnect affected people from society — a process that he and Kerala’s health minister closely monitor personally to ensure there is inter- and intra-department coordination, Vijayan said.

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Kerala’s “well-knit system of local self governments and their participation” have come of great help since the first phase of the outbreak, the chief minister said. The state had activated its health and allied departments soon after the outbreak in China, he said.

Kerala had learnt its lessons from the 2018 Nipah virus crisis, and had made it a point to imbibe good experiences from across the globe, Vijayan said. “The protocol we have drawn up is on the basis of this experience, but certainly we made it Kerala-specific considering the peculiarity of our state. We were mindful of our strength as well as our weaknesses. Our main strength is the advances we have made in the social sector. We may lack resources but we certainly have a high degree of awareness, education, participation and commitment of people,” the chief minister said.

He lauded both the citizens and Opposition parties in Kerala for their cooperation in facing the crisis. “Kerala has always risen above parochial and partisan barriers when such exigencies come,” the chief minister said.

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