Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address on Tuesday to announce the extension of the lockdown to curb COVID-19 till May 3 was silent on what the government was doing for the welfare of workers hit by the economic impact of the pandemic, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said in a statement.
Also read | Lockdown extended till May 3, says PM Modi
“He [the Prime Minister] remained tragically silent on what his government is going to do to facilitate the success of the lockdown period and ensure physical and human survival of the poorest section of working people running into several crores,” the statement issued by CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said.
Also read | Govt. may have to present second Budget to deal with COVID-19 aftermath, says Jairam Ramesh
The CITU also criticised the Prime Minister’s appeal to citizens to take care of the poor around them. The union demanded urgent steps to ramp up testing for COVID-19, protection of livelihoods of workers and immediate transfer of money to unorganised sector workers.
Chandan Kumar of the Working People’s Charter said while the Prime Minister said certain measures would be announced on Wednesday, the need of the hour was unrestricted access to the public distribution system under the National Food Security Act, prioritisation of migrant and daily wage workers in all government schemes, payment of minimum of one month’s wages and a plan for repatriation for all migrant workers once the lockdown ends.
