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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav sought intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in protection of workers who were being retrenched by employers.
He said that despite assurance by the prime minister and the chief minister, there has been no let up in retrenchment and deduction of wages by employers.
He said that even wages of contractual employees hired by government agencies were being deducted.
“Retrenchment and deduction of wages by employers is inhuman. It is the time of discharging responsibility to fight the catastrophe of COVID 19,” the SP chief said in Lucknow on Tuesday.
Akhilesh added, “Samajwadi Party welcomes the lockdown extension by another 19 days. But now it is the duty of Central and state governments to ensure availability of basic amenities to common man and ensure none slept hungry.”
The SP chief stressed that his party would continue relief works till May 3 as it was the party workers’ moral responsibility that no one was deprived of food and other basic amenities. He said that SP cadre was efficiently discharging its duties in providing aid to the poor, unemployed and needy.
Akhilesh further said that on one hand, the government does its work in a democracy; on the other, the Samajwadi Party also has a duty to serve being the principal opposition party. He said that the government should ensure wheat procurement centres for purchase of wheat from farmers at minimum support price of Rs 1,925 per quintal went on smoothly.
The SP chief had recently said that farmers were anguished over the damage to standing crop due to unseasonal rains and committed suicides in Banda.
Akhilesh alleged that an elderly man who returned from Gujarat was home quarantined for 21 days in Barabanki but no one followed up and as a result he died.
“Thus, one more life was lost due to the failure of state government during lockdown which also exposed the tall claims made by government about relief work carried by it,” he said.