Impose Nationwide Lockdown: Traders’ Body Urges Prime Minister

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has called for a nationwide lockdown to control the deadly second surge of coronavirus pandemic. The top traders’ association claimed that 67 per cent of individuals who participated in their online survey favoured a nationwide lockdown to break the chain of transmission.

CAIT national president BC Bhartia and secretary-general Praveen Khandelwal requested PM Modi to impose a national lockdown with immediate effect. However, if a nationwide lockdown is not possible, the CAIT has recommended a complete lockdown in states where Covid-19 cases are rising rapidly. CAIT has assured that if the government announces a national lockdown, the trading community will ensure the availability and supply of essential goods like last year.

“Not only the traders but even the people, in general, have gripped with a fear of steep rises in Corona cases across the country. The medical system has been greatly choked and collapsed. Taking a serious note of this issue, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has conducted an online survey in which the greater majority of people have expressed their opinion for the imposition of a “national lockdown” and in the context of Delhi, the nomination of a Union Minister as a nodal Minister to supervise Covid operations in Delhi,” a leading portal reported quoting the traders’ body statement.

As per CAIT, 9,117 traders across the country participated in its survey and about 78.2% of respondents feel that India’s covid situation is uncontrollable. Over 67% of people advocated for pan-India lockdown.

Noted epidemiologists like Anthony Fauci also vouched for short-duration complete lockdowns to lower the caseloads as India has been reporting over 3 lakh cases and 3 thousand deaths for the past many weeks. Yesterday, the country reported 3,68,147 fresh cases and 3,417 fatalities.