Citing the exodus of migrant workers from cities to villages, the Congress maintained its stand that the Centre was ill-prepared while announcing the lockdown against the spread of Covid-19.

Terming the situation shameful, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi urged the Centre to take immediate action to help migrant workers. "Out of work and facing an uncertain future, millions of our brothers and sisters across India are struggling to find their way back home. It’s shameful that the government had no contingency plan in place for this exodus," he said.

Congress spokesman Ajay Maken said the government was ill-prepared as far as fighting this Coronavirus is concerned. "I think the government took a knee jerk reaction. They took three days time. They gave three days notice to implement 21 days lockdown. Why didn’t the ruling BJP, gave enough time to people to prepare themselves," he said.

He said Rahul Gandhi had tweeted about Coronavirus threat on February 12, cautioning the government that they should start preparing immediately on testing facilities and procuring necessary medical equipments.

On the exodus of migrant workers, he said the Union Government has to take a call on whether they would allow the people to shift from one state to the other.

The Centre, if it decides to allow people to move from one border to another, they should ensure adequate travel arrangement are made for them with appropriate social distancing norms, " he further said.

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