india

Updated: Apr 27, 2020 14:03 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the 300 districts across the country where no Covid-19 positive case has been reported “should be treated as sacred”. In his digital interaction with chief ministers, PM Modi said that state governments should ensure that precautions - like maintaining safe distance - should not be abandoned in these districts, people with details of the meeting said.

The Prime Minister said that there is a need to expand green zones like these districts because in the coming days, what happens in these areas will “pave the way for our lives in the future”, the people quoted above said.

The Prime Minister also said that some chief ministers have sent him written suggestions, and there are suggestions from expert too which will form the basis of Centre’s decision on Covid-19 lockdown and ensuring the life goes on.

“Our mantra is to convert red to orange, orange to green,” PM Modi said at the meeting. He further said that this moment of crisis “has given is an opportunity to reform”.

“There is no space to fight each other, states have to take the lead in leading reform,” the Prime Minister said.

The chief ministers who attended the meeting included Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), E K Palaniswami (Tamil Nadu), Conrad Sangma (Meghalaya) Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand) and Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh).

Among those present at the virtual meet also included Home Minister Amit Shah, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and top officials from the PMO and Union Health Ministry.

The Centre and the state governments have been giving gradual exemptions to boost economic activities as also to provide relief to people as some states want further relaxation in areas which have seen few or no coronavirus cases.