COVID-19 has made a big impact on the world. Many countries are struggling to fight with this Pandemic. After China, which is the said origin of this virus, India is the country with the biggest population having more than 1.3 billion people. In this article, we will look how the Indian government is dealing with this situation.
Indian government applied the lock-down pretty early and it helped a lot to control the spread of COVID-19. It is true that numbers are still increasing and it is predicted to be increased even more. Now, we are getting new updates from the government and lock-down is being opened slowly. The question is, Is this the right time to do so? If we look at the number of people getting infected with corona, then it is the step including a big risk. On the other hand, if we notice the economy getting a big blow, we can understand what government is thinking.
However, the work done by government to help the citizens, specially people fighting to arrange their livings everyday is quite questionable. There are policies to provide basic groceries to people living below poverty line, but unfortunately, that is not being applied properly. Black marketing and shortage of supply in comparison of demand and need makes this policy a failure. Government is opening alcohol shops to get funds and save economy, and people making fun of lock-down in queues for a liquor bottle, raises another question of management. Does government really have no funds? Where are the taxes given by people every year. Everything is taxed now, GST has taken the taxes on new benchmark, petrol and diesel are already have been taxed heavily for years. Ground development in last few years is not so remarkable, the fund collected as taxes for these many years can be used to help people. Even a lot of donations has been done by natives to the Prime Minister Relief Fund; this is the time to use that money.
Moreover, Middle class people in India are also in a big trouble. EMIs and loan installments are going to kill a common man. In addition, what about the House taxes and Electricity bills; we haven’t heard anything from government regarding this. Although government announced moratorium on EMIs and loan installments, banks found a way to cut the pockets of most of their customers with a very smart way to get benefit of unclear message of moratorium by the government. And what about now, will the moratorium be extended; and is it not the government responsibility to check if the policies are being applied in right way? Common man has to fight not only with corona, but also need to find out a way to survive in these hard situations. On top of it, the local governments are trying to make things worse for them by increasing taxes and prices on petrol and diesel, it will directly impact the prices of daily need items sooner or later.
We have a lot of concerns, like medical facilities and equipment provided to doctors, number of testings, sanitization of roads and streets, help to unopened businesses, making market stable again and many more. For today, we will rest our argument here with all our wishes to the government to help the country to come out of these difficult times. Hopefully, there will be steps to help people for their survival instead of clapping sessions.
