New Delhi, May 8 (IANS): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that decision to categorise zones on the basis of the COVID-19 situation should be left to the states and districts and should not be made in a centralised manner .

While addressing his second press conference during the lockdown period, he said that the best people to decide on the issue were the states themselves as they know the supply chains better. "Today the situation is not normal. There is not going to be a general solution in this. If we decentralise and take this fight to the district level, a solution can be found. If we keep this fight till the PMO, then there is a possibility of losing."

"I request the government that they view state governments and the district magistrates as partners and that they do not centralise the decision making.

"The Prime Minister has his own style, but in my view, in such a situation a strong Prime Minister along with a lot of strong Chief Ministers and a lot of strong collectors are needed. I want us to tackle the disease at the local level itself.

"I want a strong Indian leader to stand in front of this disease - be it a collector or a farmer. The zones are being decided at the national level while the CMs say that it should be decided at the State level," said Rahul.

While asserting that this is not the time to crticise the government, he said that people should think of the country first and not think in partisan terms like one is belonging to the RSS, BJP or the Congress.

Everyone has a responsibility. Everyone should forget which party they belong to, the only thing to be remembered is that we are all Indians and together we have to end the fear & the economy has to be brought back on track

"We have been in lockdown for 45 days now and we are beginning to run into a little bit of a problem," said Rahul, adding that the MSME should be given support.

"We simply cannot continue without providing support to the people who are suffering as a result of this lockdown," he added.

He said that the government should take the idea of NYAY and start putting money directly into the hands of 50 per cent of India's poor households. It's not going to cost too much. Rs 65,000 crores is what it is going to cost."