In a 40-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Naushad Forbes, the co-chairman of Forbes Marshall, said the lockdown in Maharashtra “is an essential step” but added, “it should have happened earlier”. He said given the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, the state government “had no choice”.Speaking to The Wire about the fear that the number of migrant workers leaving Maharashtra could become a flood, Forbes said it was incumbent on Maharashtra’s big industrialists to send a direct message to workers through their contractors that they will be paid and they will be looked after and, therefore, they must not leave and return to their villages.
