Extracts from my Facebook wall of today (14th April, 2020), written after the PM's televised address on the extended lockdown (these comments will have to be read in the context of the ongoing Covid response which we support, overall, but which needs to be calibrated and guided in the appropriate fashion).
This week is crucial- critical decisions in the hands of bureaucracy, do pre-empt:
there's gong to be a scramble for deciding criteria defining zones, and subsequently, the details thereof;
the MNREGA is going to have to be implemented to provide 100 days of labour money upfront in advance to a Universal population as per the act, and the legislature is going to have to amend the act, in the meantime, to replace 100 days with 365 and one-fourth days;
ten-feet-spaced-out transport will have to be provided to returning migrant labourers and the stranded, and those who wish to pay for their own returns will have to be facilitated by opening out air routes with distance-seating;
essential commodities, including drinking water will have to be reached to individuals;
monthly contingency allowances will have to be created and given out to children for their exclusive use;
if people anywhere are trying to buy plantable seeds for horticulture, micro-greens, or any other similar food-generating activity online, courier services should be allowed to deliver these as well;
the continued manufacture, procurement, and free supply of other life-saving drugs in use, such as for TB and cancer, should be made available free of cost to all; spacing-mandated public transport should reopen in certain areas and sectors;
all factories and power-generation facilities that stand the risk of leakages and so on if there is neglect due to under-staffing will have to take required steps (whether this is to shut down, or to keep facilities operational will have to be decided on a case-to-case basis, keeping in mind specific priorities and criteria);
there will have to be an accelerated response by the state, to complaints of domestic violence during the lockdown...more points and video addresses to follow
the conditions of undertrials and convicts will have to be addressed immediately, and other (albeit additional) punitive and preventive measured will have to be mooted and transited in via legislative amendments, to create for an effective criminal justice system
school buildings needn't run for a while...those who would stand to lose a year, and therefore, money, will have to be compensated either by promoting everyone and making suitable alterations for a year for the next year's syllabus- that's one option...or??? -suggest- ;
top quality wifi connectivity should be ensured in every area where there is a student; there will be a sudden demand for the use of air drones in the name of delivering medicines etc., this will have to be kept under very, very strict watch, and possibly at bay till appropriate legislative (and not merely policy) measures are in place for the use of medical drones; mobile diagnostics needs to be accelerated, not only for corona, but a spectrum of diseases
a number of measures to make legal processes online are being implemented and extended by the judiciary...how this works for the lower courts cannot and should not be solely in the hands of the higher judiciary or courts...the legislative wing would do well to step in
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