Smaller area can be taken as unit for zoning: Odisha CM

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday said instead of branding districts as red, orange or green zones, a smaller area can be taken as a unit for zoning.

“A smaller, scientific unit can replace district as unit for zoning, and we should allow local administration to decide this area”, Patnaik said.

Addresing the Chief Ministers’ meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video conference, Patnaik said, “As regards lockdown and other regulations, there should be broad principles at national level and allow decentralised implementation by local administration.”

Patnaik said to reboot the economic activities, the union government may come up with a National Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

“Our production lines are interlinked so also our value addition process, cutting across State boundaries. A national SOP will guide in an unified response in rebooting economy,” he added.

Union Government may modify existing schemes to incentivise and actively involve Panchayat Raj institutions in COVID-19 management. As the fight is going to be long, it is important that we involve Panchayats for a system based response, said the Chief Minister.