VIJAYAWADA: Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani) on Wednesday said the state government has decided to bring back people from Andhra Pradesh who are stranded in other states due to the lockdown, in line with the Central government’s guidelines.
An estimated two lakh people, including students and migrant workers, are held up in various states, the minister noted.
The deputy chief minister also warned private hospitals of action if they don’t resume outpatient (OP) services immediately. Revealing the decisions taken at the Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting on Wednesday, he said, “Though there were no guidelines from the Centre, with the intervention of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, we brought back fishermen stranded in Gujarat.
Similarly, we will bring back all those held up in other states now that the Centre has also given some guidelines.” When asked how many such people there are, the minister said, “Preliminary estimates show about 2 lakh people... we will prepare a list. A comprehensive strategy will be discussed with the GoM on Saturday.” He added that since guidelines for movement of migrant workers among green zones were given, the government will explore options for the same.
Just 45 apply to resume operations
The Gundlapalli Industrial Growth Centre is home to many granite-based polishing and processing units, agri-based industries, chemical industries, plastic-affiliated units, cement brick units, and the like. About 5,000 people who used to work there are now jobless. “Though our polishing unit was at the Gundlapalli Industrial Growth Centre, raw materials were sourced from the Chimakurthy granite mines. But now, as mining has been stalled, our granite polishing/processing units have been shut, and will remain so until the lockdown ends,” said NV Sudhakar, proprietor of a granite polishing unit at the Industrial Growth Centre.
The government’s strict rules to resume industrial work in green zones have also deterred entrepreneurs of MSMEs from applying for permission. As per norms, committees formed by the district authorities will scrutinise online applications in three phases. In the first phase, a constituency-level committee will assess the application, after which officials will conduct a field inspection.
Based on their report, the district-level committee will decide on granting permission. “In the past four days we have only received 45 online applications. Officials are conducting field-level inspections to assess whether permission can be granted. The response has been poor so far, and we hope it will improve,” said Gundlapalli Industrial Growth Centre zonal manager Narasimha Rao.