Govt’s economic package only on papers, no relief to poor: Bhalla

Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla Sunday said that the announcement of Rs 20 lakh crore package announced by Government of India seems to have no impact on those who turned jobless, homeless, foodless due to the lockdown. “The Government is trying to encash the COVID crisis by multiplied projection of the stimulus package. It is made to sound big but on ground it is of no help to migrants and poor. The package brings not much relief to labourers, farmers and tax payers. The Government and BJP machinery is evidently ‘harping on miseries’ of the poor population that fights to survive,” the former Minister lamented. Bhalla said though, Central Government has announced a slew of measures, which are aimed at benefiting the poor and restarting the economy stalled due to the lockdown but practically there is serious gap between what Government says and what is being implemented on ground. The senior Congress leader said that they have repeatedly sought the ramping up of COVID-19 testing and Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) for health workers besides urging Government to spell out steps it plans to take to mitigate the woes of migrant labourers and farmers waiting to harvest their crops but nothing serious has been done on ground resulting in immense sufferings to all sections of society. Bhalla said that the Government has completely failed in tackling Coronavirus, in preventing it, in identifying people affected by the virus, in quarantining them, and in taking important steps. “This Government runs on knee-jerk reactions, whether it comes to taking economic steps to revive or stabilizing the economy and to prevent Corona from affecting the investors’ lifetime savings or preventing Coronavirus from spreading in this country,” he asserted. The former Minister was speaking while distributing food packets among needy persons in various parts of the Gandhi Nagar Constituency including Bathindi Ward 74, Satellite Colony, Palliya Hill Colony, Zuberabad and Mohalla Shamsdin.