I don’t want another lockdown, says CM Uddhav Thackeray

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ruled out imposing another lockdown amid increasing COVID19 cases but indicated that certain restrictions would remain to prevent the transmission of the virus He was replying during a debate in the Legislative Assembly on WednesdayldquoLockdown may be the best tool to break the chain of transmission but I donrsquot want it to be imposed I donrsquot want to leave people hungry The economy will stop On the other side wersquore increasing healthcare apparatus and moving ahead cautiously considering the hard decisions of lockdown taken by some countries that may have better healthcare facilities than usrdquo he saidThackeray said his government had done its best and even the Centrersquos team had acknowledged the efforts during its recent visit ldquoThe Centrersquos team told me that we lack nothing but observed that the system had exhausted itself because of prolonged frontline work And yet wersquore taking all possible measures to prevent the infection Irsquom ready to be a villain in this because I want people safe and healthyrdquo he said adding that the vaccination drive had picked up great speed ldquoI have asked for the network to be expanded Some 29 private hospitals have been allowed to vaccinate citizens I have asked for more in Mumbai and elsewhere in MaharashtrardquoRejecting the observations made in the Centrersquos Economic Survey that Maharashtra didnrsquot do better in mitigating the pandemic the CM came down heavily on the surveyors and their expertise He said comparing Maharashtra with states like Bihar to draw some conclusions was unacceptable ldquoA person who had praised the Centre for demonetisation has worked on the survey It seems a medical practitionerrsquos compounder is better than this doctor of economics The findings mocked the country and our staterdquo he said adding that the media had exposed Bihar for its lsquobogusrsquo handling of the pandemicldquoSo will you trust such findings to shut Maharashtra We did not hide the number of patients and deathsrdquo he said adding that his government did not lie like those who lied about a closeddoor meeting with him Apparently he was referring to the meeting where Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised Thackeray the CMrsquos post Shah had denied making such a promiselsquoMVA mismanaged COVIDrsquoOn Tuesday opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis had accused the Thackeray government of mismanagement particularly in the case of the COVID19 pandemic He said the MVA government could have mitigated the pandemic by increasing the tests ldquoThe state could have reduced the number of patients by 955000 and deaths by 30900 Who is responsible for thisrdquo he asked He said the pandemic was still serious and alleged corruption in its management ldquoTesting rackets are operating uncheckedrdquo he said citing irregularities in Amravati and Navi MumbaiThackeray on the other hand slammed PM Narendra Modi for a sudden lockdown ldquoThe PM didnrsquot do anything when I asked to stop local trains and getting longdistance trains for migrant labourers We ensured that poor people were fed and looked after And yet you blame usrdquo he told the OppositionResponding to Fadnavisrsquos concern over the delay in constructing Metro3 because of the shifting of the depot the CM said that the BJP and the MVA government could work together to resolve the issue of the ownership of the Kanjurmarg land ldquoThis isnrsquot an ego issue for anyone We havenrsquot stalled Metro3 The cost has escalated by Rs 10000 crore The Aarey site will be insufficient after some years Wersquove merged the Metro3 Metro4 and 4A lines to take connectivity up to Ambernathrdquo Thackeray said