Prime Minister of India, Not Priest – Modi ji, roll back your call to switch-off lights on 5 April 2020, Sunday at 9 pm.
We call upon Indians to use this time to prepare a mask instead and ensure everybody is masked to slow down the spread of COVID-19. Ensure safety to our frontline workers i.e. health workers, police, journalists, sanitation staff, daily wagers, the unemployed, small enterprises, the poor, and senior citizens and children. Ensure the health and wellbeing of all Indians through masks, good diet and immunity-boosting foods.
Socialist Party (India) calls upon every Indian to use these 9 precious minutes and more, today and later, that can and must be used, to prepare a mask for self and for others. The 130 crore Indians who PM referred to, and non-Indians residing now in India need masks and more masks. Of all persons, our health workers, police and journalists, sanitation staff, migrating and stationery poor, who on the frontline combating COVID-19 need the strongest protective gear.
PUTTING INDIAN POWER DEPARTMENT UNDER SUCH EXTREME STRESS DOES NOT IN ANYWAY HELP COMBAT COVID19 CORONA VIRUS, RATHER IT IS UNCALLED FOR AMID A MEDICAL EMERGENCY AND HIGHLY RISKY, HENCE PM SHOULD ROLL BACK HIS UNWARRANTED CALL AND STRENGTHEN FOCUS OF OUR BRAVE FRONTLINERS:
At a time when our frontliners are working out of their comfort zones to keep the people safe, how does switching off lights not help the mammoth medical emergency but adds burden to Power Departments.
“This sharp and unprecedented reduction in load and recovery, POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation Ltd.) notes in its advisory, has to be handled by managing power generation at hydro and gas plants. To manage this fluctuation of 12000-13000 MWs, Power System Operation Corporation Ltd, or POSOCO – the public sector company responsible for managing the country’s grid operations – is arranging resources almost at a war footing. It has asked all its senior personnel to be in attendance across the country, and man generating stations, substations and load dispatch centres. Rest of the staff in evening shift have been asked to stay on till 10 PM, despite overlap with those in the night shift. Most importantly, POSOCO has sent off an advisory that lists out instructions that have to be carried out on the night of April 5, in near clock-work precision.”
Source
It is the responsibility of every Indian to ponder why they should not switch off the lights and rather, advise Prime Minister to roll back his misplaced ‘appeal’ that has now taken the form of notifications from ministries.
A. SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY TO GOVERNMENT OF INDIA FOR MASKS NOT HIGHLIGHTED BY PM IN VIDEO-CONFERENCE WITH CMs OR IN VIDEO MSG TO INDIANS
- The necessity for masks can, not just be gauged by the experiences of countries like Czech Republic that are claiming drastic slow down of spread of coronavirus through mandatory masks at a time when Europe is steeped in a dangerous spread and high death toll.
- At the home front, we are also guided through the advisory from Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, Prof K Vijay Raghavan as carried by Times of India on 1 April 2020:
On 31 March 2020 Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India, who is chairman of Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), issued its statement and detailed manual on the importance and need for mask making at home to contain the spread of COVID 19 coronavirus.
Ignoring the weight of the scientific message of 31 March 2020, to use and prepare masks, for the immediate benefit of Indian masses and frontline professionals and staff combating the fast spread of COVID-19 coronavirus, Prime Minister of India, on 3 April 2020 calls upon 130 crore Indians to switch off power grid lights and instead light lamps/candles/mobile lights for 9 minutes at 9 pm on 5 April 2020.
The previous day of 2 April 2020, PM had a video conference with state chief ministers on the rising cases of COVID-19 infections. Even then he did not deem it fit to highlight the mask-measure with CMs. Neither did he sport a mask (like the Czech PM did) so that the masses catch up with sporting a mask and its protectability.
It was on 4th April that Press Information Bureau released the manual of principal scientific advisor.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1611020
The manual with statement of PSA Prof K Vijay Raghavan, can be accessed from here:
Methodology of preparation of homemade masks and also its re-use with handling guidelines are detailed in the above manual.
B. IMPORTANCE OF IMMUNITY BOOSTING AS PER DOCTORS AND AYUSH MINISTRY
While there are many other medical prescriptions regarding the importance of immunity-boosting and healthy diet, vital to combating Covid19 coronavirus, even Ayush Ministry’s guidelines for immunity boosting have not been given any importance vis-a-vis advising the country to switch off lights and light lamps. This document issued by Ayush Ministry contains home remedies for immunity boosting to control Covid19 coronavirus.
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/DOSecyHRD.pdf
Other links we come across are:
C. ADVISORY BODIES TO GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Apart from chief scientific advisory and chief economic advisory, NITI Ayog, standing committees, commissions, we have Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) who is the leading institute now appointed by the government of India.
It is beyond our comprehension who was consulted prior to the announcement of switching off lights, that started as an appeal and now issued through HRD secretary through a notification dated 4 April 2020, as well as notification from Power Ministry, dated 4 April 2020.
Even as some industry leaders expressed serious apprehensions as below:
“While our Honorable PM has announced a nine-minute blackout, he has not factored in the damage that will occur to the National Grid, Boilers and Turbines of the Power Plants due to the sudden loss of demand and then a sudden surge after 9 minutes. I strongly recommend that all of you switch off the main switch of your house at least 15 minutes before, as there will be a surge in voltage which will damage all your electricals. Wait for 15 minutes after the blackout before you switch on as there could be fluctuations in the Voltage and frequency as the Turbines struggle to stabilise. Since industries are also closed, there is only domestic load and we could have a National grid failure due to high frequency which could have a devastating effect. Our grid may take 12 hours to restart as we may have to depend on Nepal or Bangladesh to get ours online. So please keep your mobiles charged beforehand as you may need to use its flashlight in case of emergency. Take care. Cyrus Engineer Industrial Boilers Ltd.“
Government of India, Ministry of Power has come up with the following explanation:
Ministry of Power
Adequate arrangements and protocols are in place to handle grid stability during lights out event on 5th April at 9:00 PM
Posted On: 04 APR 2020 3:56PM by PIB Delhi'
D. MISPLACED AND SERIOUSLY DEVIANT FROM INDIANS’ FOCUS
It is not just misplaced and seriously deviant from the sole humanitarian, scientific approach that should be the focus, but also bringing unwarranted burden on the power departments.
We appeal to the 130 crores Indians to not become symbolic but be energetic and follow the government of India principal scientific advisory for preparing masks and to consume/donate adequate immunity-boosting products at displaced marginalized camps.
Together let us protect our brothers and sisters of our country and thus be the country that produced the largest number of masks and donated immunity-boosting products.
It is our responsibility to assist our health staff, police staff, sanitation staff, journalists who are out in the public domain struggling to keep our lives safe, health and normal.
DON’T SWITCH OFF LIGHTS, PREPARE MASK IN LIGHT. SWITCHING OFF LIGHT DOES NOT PROTECT YOU LIKE MASK, NOR STRENGTHENS YOUR IMMUNITY LIKE NUTRITIOUS DIET, THAT MILLIONS OF INDIANS LACK.
PLEASE TWEET PMO @PMOIndia TO ROLL BACK HIS APPEAL AND THAT YOU ARE PREPARING A MASK INSTEAD.
Jai Hind
Prof Sandeep Pandey, National Vice President, SP(I) Dr Lubna Sarwath, Telangana State General Secretary, SP(I)
Surabhi Agarwal, Guru Moorthy, Bobby Ramakanth, Spokespersons, SP(I) Maqbool Mateen, National President, United Citizens Forum
