IMPLEMENT NYAY SCHEME: CONGRESS PRESIDENT SONIA GANDHI WRITES LETTER TO PM MODI AMID COVID-19 CRISIS!

As more than a billion people have locked themselves up after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown to contain the Coronavirus spread, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, 26 March, wrote a letter to the PM expressing support to the Centre's move.

“The 21-day nation-wide lockdown announced by you as a measure to fight the coronavirus is a welcome step. As president of the Indian National Congress, I would like to state that we will support and collaborate fully with every step taken by the Union government to ensure the containment of the pandemic,” Gandhi wrote in her letter.

This is Gandhi's second letter to the Prime Minister in four days, urging him to roll out emergency welfare measures.

Sonia Gandhi put forward eight suggestions that should be undertaken by the Centre "to address the massive health crisis we (the nation) are about to face and to ameliorate the immense economic and existential pain that vulnerable sections of our society will soon be subject to."

Gandhi sought measures to protect doctors, paramedics and ease the supply chain

She then said implementing Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) is the need of the hour as it will give a basic economic resource for the poor to fall back on.

NYAY, also known as 'Minimum Income Guarantee Scheme (MIGS)', was part of the Congress's manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that assured a guaranteed minimum income of 72,000 Rupees per year to five crore poorest families covering twenty-five crore people.

In her eight suggestions, Gandhi demanded a dedicated Web portal with information about designated hospitals and construction of intensive care units and ventilators.

She requested the Prime Minister to put in place direct cash transfer for daily wagers, MGNREGA workers, factory labour, construction and unorganised workers, fishermen, farm labourers and other vulnerable sections of the society.

She demanded a sector-wise relief package including tax breaks, interest subvention and deferment of liability.

The Congress president also suggested deferring all EMIs and loan instalment deductions from salaries of government employees for six months and waiving interest charged by banks during this period.