Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to waive the interest on home loans availed by the poor and middle class as well as the power bills of farmers for four months.
In a letter to Adityanath, she also sought a slew of relief measures including waivers on bank loans and power bills of small and medium industries which she said were the backbone of the state's economy.
In her letter, Priyanka called for relief to weavers and workers in various small and cottage industries in the state including carpet, textiles and 'chikan' work.
She noted that every section of society has been badly affected due to coronavirus and it is important for the government to help them. She especially talked about the vulnerable sections in society like daily wagers, poor people, migrants, farmers and labourers.
The Congress leader also said a fee waiver in private schools will give much-needed relief to the middle class which is going through an economic crisis.
"In such times when there is retrenchment and wage-cuts, it is very difficult for the middle class to pay up the home loans. I suggest you should reduce the interest on home loans to zero per cent and allow deferment in payment of home loans for six months," she said in her letter.
Priyanka also called for waiving of power and tubewell bills for farmers, saying they have also been badly affected. She also called for a waiver on penalties imposed on such bills for four months.
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"I suggest you should waive tubewell and home electricity bills for four months," she said, adding that a guanrantee to purchase their crop be given to farmers and their pending dues be paid up immediately.
Noting that the small and cottage industry, weavers and artisans have suffered badly due to the lockdown, she called for relief to them in loan waivers and in pending payments of power bills
The Congress leader also condoled the demise of Adityanath's father. This was the first time she wrote to the chief minister after his father's death. Adityanath's father passed away on April 20.
Separately on Twitter, she also urged the UP chief minister to help lakhs of migrants who are walking down the roads barefoot in the blazing sun without food and water, by using state buses which are standing idle.
"The Chief Minister is requested that thousands of poor people are walking on foot without food and water under the blazing sun. Women, children and pregnant women are also walking on foot. UPSRTC has so many buses standing idle. Take these buses out on the roads out of humanitarianism. These are our own people and all residents of UP," she said in a series of tweets in Hindi.
Gandhi said all of them will benefit by sitting in buses safely and this will also help in easy screening/testing of migrants with proper quarantine on their arrival.
She said recently lakhs of people are going to their villages on foot/cycle/cart/tempo/ truck/tractor without testing/screening. "It is neither safe for them, nor for the state in its fight against the corona. Please help them," she said in a tweet in Hindi.
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