Telangana CM urges PM to extend lockdown by couple of weeks

He appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the lockdown beyond April 14 for one or two weeks.

"I am appealing to the Prime Minister and Government of India to extend lockdown without hesitation. Lockdown is the only weapon we have to control the spread of this disease and avoid a situation which countries like the US, Spain and Italy are facing," he told a news conference.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said though the country's economy would suffer because of lockdown, it can be revived by working hard and by making sacrifices over next six months to one year. "We can revive the economy but not the dead. The human life is the most precious," he said.

Stating that India has so far done well to control the situation through lockdown, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief said if the lockdown was not extended, the sacrifice of three weeks would go in vain.

He said Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) in its survey favoured lockdown till June 3 as it predicted that the spread of COVID-19 would reach a peak by June.

KCR said if the lockdown was lifted on April 15, there could no control on movement of people. "All will come out at once and we will not be in a position to allow some people and stop others," he said.

Stating that the US is facing a terrible situation with heaps of bodies in its financial capital New York, KCR said without lockdown, India would have also faced a bad situation.