Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has welcomed the 21-day nationwide lockdown announced by the Prime Minister and also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to not to differentiate between essential and non-essential goods during movement of goods through interstate borders.
"I welcome your announcement of a nationwide lockdown for a period of 21 days with effect from today. My state has been taking all out efforts to ensure that the lockdown is enforced effectively.
In this context, I would like to draw your attention to one issue of nationwide ramification," the letter read.
In the letter the Odisha CM said, "As of now it has been announced that all transport services except transportation of essential goods will remain suspended. I am of the view that differentiations of goods as essential and non-essential will lead to discretion, corruption and dislocation at check gate level. It may lead to chaos and affect the movement of essential goods as well."
"I am sharing this from our experience in handling natural disasters whenever we have made a differentiation between essential and non-essential goods, the overall goods movement. Especially of essential goods get affected," the letter further read.
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