Uddhav Thackeray again hints of lockdown in Maharashtra

Mumbai : Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray once again hinted of imposing a lockdown in the state due to unprecedented rise in the number of coronavirus cases. An all-party meet has been scheduled for Sunday.

Maharashtra had recently applied night curfew and weekend lockdown but CM believes that they need to bring stricter rules to break the chain of transmission.

"If a decision about the lockdown is not taken today, a lockdown-like situation will automatically come into force tomorrow... In this situation, we will have to bear some hardship to win this battle," he tweeted after the meeting.

However, not all party members are in favour of imposing lockdown in the state. Infact, the opposition party has also asked them not to choose lockdown.

Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP said, "If you impose lockdown, people will be angry. Many businesses will be shut. Think about that." His party's state unit chief Chandrakant Patil said, "BJP is not against lockdown but there should be a proper plan before going ahead."

Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray has pointed out challenges in contact tracing and pushed for widening vaccination program in the state.

Maharashtra on Saturday reported over 55,000 new cases of the coronavirus, which pushed its overall tally to 33.43 lakh, while the death of 309 patients took its fatalities to 57,638, the state health department said.