Ease local pain points, PM Modi tells ministers

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Friday amid rising cases of coronavirus in the country. They discussed the ways to manage the pandemic and ensure availability of essential supplies. This was the first meeting of the council of ministers since the beginning of the second Covid wave in the country.

The PM said that all arms of the Government are working unitedly and rapidly to deal with the situation. He also urged the Ministers to stay in touch with people of their respective regions, help them and keep getting their feedback. The Prime Minister also stressed the need to ensure that issues at the local level are promptly identified and addressed.

In the meeting, PM Narendra Modi assured that all arms of the government are working unitedly and rapidly to deal with the situation, At the virtual meeting, NITI Aayog member VK Paul addressed the subject of Covid-19 management through a presentation. Followed by a briefing by Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Mansukh Mandaviya who spoke to their cabinet colleagues about the availability of oxygen and antiviral drugs. PM Modi also urged the Ministers to stay in touch with people of their respective regions and help them. He asked them to keep registering their feedback.

The council of Ministers stressed the importance of Covid appropriate behaviour- wearing a mask, keeping physical distance of 6 feet and washing hands frequently. The efforts by the Central Government in coordination with the states towards building up infrastructure in the form of ramping up hospital beds, PSA oxygen facilities etc, resolving issues in production, storage and transport of Oxygen, tackling matters relating to availability of essential medicines were briefed in the meeting. The measures being taken to further ramp up their supply and availability were also pointed out.