Cong leaders demand Rs 10,000 for poor

On the call given by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former party president Rahul Gandhi under the ‘Speak up India’ programme large number of Congressmen went live on Thursday on various social media platforms and raised many issues.

The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Pritam Singh went live on FB and other platforms from the Rajiv Bhawan on the day and demanded that the union Government should transfer a sum of Rs 10,000 in the bank account of all labourers, poor families and every migrant.

He said that the Uttarakhand has failed miserably in making proper arrangement for quarantine of migrants.

He said that the Congress party had suggested that the government should set up base camps at borders for the migrants and when the numbers of migrants go

beyond the capacity of these camps, arrangement for quarantine should have been made at district and block levels.

Singh said that the State Government ignored the suggestion and allowed the migrants to go their villages and loaded the responsibility of quarantine over the Pradhans who were ill equipped for the task.

Former chief minister Harish Rawat in his address said that the large scale movement of workers across the country could not have occurred had the union Government transferred money in the bank accounts of poor after end of first phase of lockdown.

He said that now with migrant labourers returning to their homes, challenge of providing employment to them and keeping the factories operational in absence of labourers is before the Government.

Rawat said that the Congress leaders and the experts had suggested that cash should be transferred in the pockets of the poor which would generate demand and keep the economy afloat.

 He said that number of minimum employment days in the MNREGA scheme should be increased from present 100 days to 200 days and an amount of Rs 10,000 should be transferred in  the bank accounts of poor.

The former CM added that instead of providing loans, cash grants should be provided to the small entrepreneurs.