CMs to discuss migrants issue, exit strategy with PM Narendra Modi today

Several CMs say they're staring at economic ruin if limited activity is not started

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s videoconference with chief ministers (CMs) on Monday will focus on how best to facilitate interstate transit of migrants. At least some CMs are likely to flag how the Centre has caused confusion by speaking in different voices on the issue, indicating that the Centre has favoured Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states.

Several states, including Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, have deployed buses to evacuate their migrants, particularly students from Kota in Rajasthan. However, the Centre is yet to announce a policy on the issue. Neither do the CMs agree on how best to help migrants reach their native places. If Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot wants special trains for migrants, Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray has rejected it lest it leads to overcrowding. Even Chhattisgarh and Odisha, both of which have fewer cases, are not keen that train services start at the current juncture.

The CMs would highlight, as Rajasthan’s Gehlot did on Saturday, that the Centre “should show the same unity when it comes to issuing guidelines for the states irrespective of the party lineage”.

On movement of stranded migrants and other issues, Gehlot is set to flag how “it is creating confusion” for everyone that the Union home secretary and cabinet secretary are not on the same page.

The Rajasthan CM has said it is intriguing that the home secretary has issued oral instructions to the states during videoconferences, which the cabinet secretary has taken to rescind. He cited the example of students in Kota wanting to leave for their home states, saying the home secretary allowed this but the cabinet secretary later said no such order had been issued.

Gehlot would again ask the PM for centralised procurement of testing kits to prevent a repeat of the faulty rapid testing kits purchased from China.

On Sunday, Maharashtra’s Thackeray said he would take a call on the post lockdown strategy after April 30. “We are restarting some things. I am going to study (the plan) it this evening. We have to see how we return to normalcy slowly.”

While Gehlot would want the Centre to start special trains for migrants, Thackeray disagreed. The Maharashtra CM said he was trying to find a solution with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments, but “train services will not start”. He said his government would not open district borders in the state just yet, but gradually easing restrictions within districts to allow economic activity to resume.

Apart from the migrants issue, the CMs of non-BJP-ruled states would wish to know the Centre’s plan for a staggered exit from the lockdown beyond May 3, seek more decentralisation of decision making to the states, particularly in relaxing the lockdown in ‘safe zones’.

Several CMs have said their states are looking at economic ruin if limited activity is not started. While they want the Centre to announce the exit strategy, the PM in his Mann ki Baat on Sunday said it was important that people in ‘safe zones’ do not get overconfident.

On the issue of staggered exit, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee wants the lockdown to be completely phased out by the middle of May, Uttar Pradesh’s Adityanath has banned all public gatherings until June 30.

Kerala will demand more fiscal empowerment for the states, question the rationale of diverting food grains for manufacturing alcohol-based sanitizers, distribution of foodgrain in the Centre’s godowns to migrants, and express concern at the “wasteful expenditure” on central vista redevelopment.

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh will demand that liquor sales be allowed to help states earn much-needed revenue. CMs of Congress-ruled states would also ask for expansion and extension of the Reserve Bank’s moratorium on payment of loans, issue of high collateral security to be addressed and Rs 1-trillion package for MSMEs.

Puducherry CM V Narayansamy is set to ask the Centre to resolve the issue of migrant labour, but also make arrangements to bring back blue-collar workers stranded abroad.  Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and others will again ask the Centre for more funds and relax fiscal deficit limits.