The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday released a detailed note offering suggestions to the Union government on revival of the economy.
“Problems since the beginning of the lockdown and difficulties being faced by crores of Indians, especially migrant workers, daily labourers and the poor, unable to survive will deepen. This is what needs the Centre’s attention,” tweeted CPI(M) general Sitaram Yechury, while releasing the note.
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Separately, CPI general secretary D. Raja told The Hindu, “The Coronavirus pandemic has not changed the neo-liberal economic trajectory of the BJP government at the Centre. And this has worsened the economic inequality. It has led to mass unemployment, growing poverty, hunger and despair. Solutions can’t come out of the current economic framework”, he said.
In another tweet, Mr. Yechury said, “It is sheer cruelty to expect workers who have absolutely no earnings for the last two months, because of the lockdown, to pay for their own train tickets. Nor can State Governments bear this financial expenditure when they have not received any help from the Central Government.”
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In the note, the CPI(M) said: “How long this distress will continue is not known; but to start with, the central government must make available to every non income tax paying household Rs.7,500 per month for a period of three months, and to every individual 10 kg. of free grains per month for a period of six months”.
The party advocated providing cooked meals for the poor as well as giving a certain amount of pulses, cooking oil and other necessities. While the State governments were at the forefront of the COVID-19 fight, the Centre should transfer resources such as cash as grants and food grains.
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“All this must be in addition to the substantial assistance that the Centre must give the State governments from the thousands of crores being collected in the private fund named after the PM for fighting the pandemic and for improving healthcare facilities like increasing the supplies of ventilators, masks, protective gear, testing equipment etc,” the CPI(M) note said.
The party also talked about looking at taxing the wealthy later and coming up with measures to stop the flight of foreign capital as countries like Spain had done.
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Starting the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme, strengthening the MSMEs and agriculture actor, reviving the village economy, restoring the supply chain of essential goods and ensuring the return of migrant workers to their workplace were the other key suggestions.
