CONGRESS pleads for stimulus to MSMEs & food, shelter to migrant workers

Congress party has repeatedly and consistently maintained that the Government must prioritise certain things and that is the only way forward to defeat the Covid-19, says AICC Spokesperson Sushmita Dev in New Delhi on Tuesday, May 5. The Lok Sabha Member from Assam’s Barak Valley was reacting to the video interaction between party’s ex-President Rahul Gandhi and  Nobel prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee. The first problem and the most essential problem that the people of India are facing, the migrant people are facing, the poor people are facing is one of food, that wherever you are, it is not just a question of are you in your home city, are you in your home state, but, wherever you are, you should have access to the food, whether you are inside the PDS system, whether you are outside the PDS system and that is something that has been raised constantly by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the Party, Sushmita Dev said. Second and the most critical issue is the economy. Congress Party through a  letter to the  Congress President and various press meets has constantly said that the stimulus to MSMEs must come on time. It must not only be timely, but it should be efficient and sufficient for MSME industries to come out of this deep crisis. Third, last but, not least, consistently what Congress Party has been saying, I am happy to say that Prof. Banerjee has raised the critical problem of the shrinking demand in the market. Unless we create sufficient demand, there is absolutely no way that it is going to revive the economy.  Our suggestions were crystal clear – Put more money in the hands of the people. One way of doing it is, Availing the direct benefit transfer scheme something called NYAY, which the UPA had proposed in its manifesto, but, after the Lok Sabha elections that never saw the light of the day, because of the results. The entire idea behind it is unless you create liquidity in the hands of the people, it is absolutely not possible to fix the demand side. Prof. Banerjee, as we saw in the interaction, not only went to the extent of saying give Rs. 7,500 to five crore families, who are the poorest of the poor, in fact, he went a step ahead to say – Give 60% of the population, the poorest of the poor population, whether you need it, don’t need it, put that money in and even if you can’t put it in now, the Government should give an assurance that amount of money and he has proposed something like Rs. 10,000 should come into the bank accounts. Rahul Gandhi has consistently maintained decentralization of power to give states more creativity, says  Sushmita, Dev, who is also president of All India Mahila Congress. (image courtesy to national herald.com)