Fight against coronavirus must be fought unitedly by Centre, States: CWC

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Thursday said the fight against the coronavirus must be fought unitedly by the Central and the State governments.

"The fight against coronavirus must be unitedly fought by the Central and the State governments. Majority of the state governments have complained of inadequate financial resources in the absence of Central government not releasing the States' share in the GST," said the CWC.

"We call upon the union government to forthwith release the States' share in the GST to enable them to fight COVID-19 more effectively," added the statement issued by the CWC after a meeting of its leaders via video conferencing.

 

The statement read that on the containment and treatment, the government has "erred in adopting a strategy of limited testing."

"A lockdown or any other kind of restrictions is futile unless it is accompanied by extensive testing. It is extensive testing that has yielded results in some countries. Inexplicably, we have not put to full use even our limited testing capacity," added the CWC.

"The flawed strategy must be revised and testing must be scaled up urgently. Simultaneously, the government must undertake massive production and procurement of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), Hazmat suits, body overalls, goggles, gloves, N-95 masks, ventilators etc., and make them widely available to doctors, nurses, health workers as also hospitals and all other personnel," stated the CWC.

It further stated that the government has "miserably failed to provide adequate livelihood support to the poor."

"The Financial Action Plan-I announced on March 25 was miserly, hopelessly inadequate and left out several vulnerable sections of the people. Financial Action Plan-I failed to instil the confidence in the poor and, as a result, we witnessed the tragic spectacle of thousands of migrant workers desperately trying to go back to their villages by any means whatsoever, including on foot," read the CWC statement.

"The CWC demands that the government should immediately announce Financial Action Plan II that will reassure the poor people and also provide adequate financial support to the sections that were left out including farmers, tenant farmers, landless agricultural workers, MGNREGA workers without MGNREGA work, laid-off industrial workers, Jan Dhan account holders (whether men or women), etc," added the statement.

The CWC stated that supply chains to crores of people, especially those living in towns, cities and remote villages, have been "severely disrupted by poor preparation and thoughtless orders and notifications."

"If people have to survive in a lockdown, these supply chains must be immediately restored and maintained throughout the period of restrictions. In order to give relief to the people, the Congress commends to the government a number of small steps such as cutting GST rates for a period of three months on goods of mass consumption, mandatorily postponing tax payment deadlines and EMI dates to 30 June 2020 and beyond, restoring the thoughtless reduction in interest rates on PPF and small savings etc. Each step, though small, will bring significant comfort to the people in these difficult and stressful times," said the CWC.