-The Hindu Expanded rations will not only bring relief in this pandemic but also help sustain a nourished and healthy population Two days ago, the Finance Minister Nirmala SITharaman announced a ₹1.7-lakh crore package of social security measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in the period of the 21-day lockdown. In respect of food security, the package falls far short of what is needed. I argue that we need to immediately...
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Rs 1.7 lakh crore Covid-19 package: Many who have been hit still left out, relief too little -P Vaidyanathan Iyer
-The Indian Express The central government’s package, as it is, comes a week after Kerala first announced a Rs 20,000-crore support for its people. Many states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Telangana and Rajasthan followed suit. The Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala SITharaman for the vulnerable sections — farmers, women, construction workers, senior citizens, widows and the disabled — is less than 1 per cent of...
More »State’s measures to fight coronavirus are stripping the poor of dignity and hope -Harsh Mander
-The Indian Express Harsh Mander writes: The Indian government found it fit to charter planes with medical staff to fly in migrants from other countries. But it felt no responsibility at all to the millions of migrants stranded without work and food in every corner of the country. I won’t die of corona. Before that, I will surely die of hunger”. I heard this lament more than a dozen times from different...
More »Coping with coronavirus: Big challenge for India’s 37%— ‘internal migrants’ -Seema Chishti
-The Indian Express Jagdish (22), from Madhya Pradesh, does a mason’s work and is worried that even if the contractor gives money, that would be a loan, not relief. “It would be a very big government school when built,” says Kaushalendra Trivedi (45), a recent migrant from Gorakhpur, employed as a guard in Uttam Nagar in the national capital’s Rajkiya Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya. His family is five kilometres away in a makeshift...
More »Has the Finance Minister Pulled a Fast One on MNREGA Workers? -Jean Drèze
-TheWire.in It appears that the Rs 20 bonus is nothing more than an approximate average of the state-specific increases notified by the rural development ministry on March 23. The relief package announced by finance minister Nirmala SITharaman on Thursday is more than a trifle misleading as far as provisions for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) workers are concerned. Please click here to read more. ...
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