States have freedom to impose lockdown: Kishen Reddy

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy on Monday said that all the States of the country have freedom to impose lockdown and create containment zones in their limits in order to prevent the spread of Covid 19 virus.

He said that the governments of the respective states have the freedom to respond to the circumstances prevailing in their limits and take decisions accordingly. He made these remarks while talking to media persons after inspecting Bibinagar based AIIMS.

Speaking on the occasion he said that the states also have the responsibility to distribute the oxygen received from the central government. He said that they were importing the oxygen from foreign countries with the help of war aircraft and added that they were distributing the oxygen to the states based on their population. Reddy said that the containment of the Covid 19 virus was in the hands of the people of the country. He said that they could only treat the people but could not stop the spread of the virus. He urged the people to behave in a responsible manner . He advised the state government to provide the Covid treatment through its Aarogyasri scheme.

The minister also responded on the reports of the black marketing of the Covid vaccine. He urged the state governments to acts strictly on such news reports and ensure that the vaccine was available to all the people of the country. Commenting on the transfer of the AIIMS he said that the transfer process had not yet been completed by them and added that none were aware of the papers related to the transfer. He said that people with Covid symptoms should go under self isolation to break the chain of the virus.

Commenting on the Covid second wave, he said that none thought that the number of cases would go up so much. He agreed that there was a severe shortage of oxygen and beds in the country and added that they would overcome the problem. He said that they were trying to overcome the problem with the help of foreign countries