Congress on Friday urged the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi Governments to make immediate elaborate arrangements for the migrants and labour class people and their families who are now struggling for their daily rations every day.
While party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wrote a letter to the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seeking immediate help to farmers and labourers who have been hit due to the lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak, former Union Minister Ajay Maken put forth 10-point charter demand to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to help those in distress in the national Capital due to COVID-19 lockdown.
Priyanka sought the setting up of a task force for economic revival in the State.
She said that the Government should take immediate measures to provide relief to farmers and labourers who are suffering due to suspension of economic activities. Free ration like wheat, pulses, oil and spices should be given to all those labourers and workers not registered in the State, she said in her letter.
Stating that an economic rejuvenation task force of experts be set up to handle the crisis, she said in her letter, “The pandemic has severely breached the economy, every section of the society is affected due to this, there are many social and economic issues which should be looked at. I urge you to set up an economic revival task force in Uttar Pradesh with noted experts to put in place an economic revival plan. The task of this force would be to prepare a roadmap for the economic revival in the State,” the Congress general secretary said in her letter.
Priyanka also demanded smooth harvest and procurement of Rabi crops. She said that the Government should relax conditions for the use of combined harvesters, agricultural machines that reap, thresh, and clean cereal crops.
Stating that the coronavirus pandemic has brought an economic destruction and cast its shadow on small scale industries, she said it is the time to focus on helping the people and providing them relief to reduce their sufferings.
The Congress leader further demanded payment of dues to the sugarcane farmers and relief for those farmers who have suffered due to the hailstorm and unseasonal rain. She said the Government should announce a relief package for artisans including those working in the brass, dairy, glass industries and other sectors.
She also thanked the state government for giving free ration to the MGNREGA workers.
“People should be given ration without card and non-registered labourers should be given financial help,” Priyanka said.
Maken demanded that fixed power charges be waived off and school fees should not be charged from students, besides payment of salaries of school teachers in aided schools and workers in MSMEs by the government.
He also sought Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), to be notified as regulations, for delivery boys in the national capital to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus through them.
Adressing a AICC Press conference through video-conferencing, Maken said testing should be ramped up in the national Capital and asked whether Delhi had entered the community transmission stage-3 of the virus as 135 people have been kept "under investigation".
The former Delhi Congress chief said migrants should be incentivised in Delhi and in other towns as they are the backbone of any city and demanded that they be given Rs s 7,500 per month immediately to help them cope with the crisis.
"Migrants are the backbone of any city and hence they should be incentivised to make them feel safe in Delhi and other towns," Ajay Maken said.
He also demanded payment of ration for two months to the poor and vulnerable, besides advance payment of pension to senior citizens and widows and risk allowance to sanitation and frontline health workers. Makenlso asked for an unemployment allowance of Rs 5,000 to all unemployed in the national Capital.