Spokesperson: Smt. SupriyaShrinate: She said that the hypocrisy of the Modi Government is out for everybody to see. Yesterday, in the Supreme Court, the Government said that compensation on account of Corona death is going to be only and only Rs. 50,000. How are they calculating that and on what basis? Rs. 50,000 is beyond our mortal imagination, we do not comprehend that, but the reality is that this Government has been dragging its feet on compensation from day one and before I move any further, I want to assert the demand of the Congress Party, the Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, our leader Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji have consistently said, there needs to be proper adequate compensation for Corona deaths.

Today from this platform, we demand a compensation of Rs. 5,00,000 for every life lost during Corona, because Corona in India was a manmade crisis. Instead of providing for oxygen and cylinders and beds and vaccines and medicines, this government was too busy electioneering, but what did this government tell the Supreme Court? First of all, this government went and told the court that under the National Disaster Management Act Rules, 2005, Corona is not a disaster.

The Supreme Court told them of and in fact, in its order of June 30, 2021, completely negated what this Government had said. The government kept taking adjournments, kept dragging its feet, eventually on September 22, 2021, the government said that through the SDRF a compensation of Rs. 50,000 will be released to every family, every life that has been lost due to Corona. But one wants to understand, what is the written law- the written law on the April 08, 2015, during the tenure of Mr. Modi very clearly states that every life lost during a disastrous event, during a disaster will be compensated for by Rs. 4,00,000. Why is the Government going back on the written law, on the written words? It is true that at a time when the Government should have prioritized Corona management, it failed to do so, it was too busy in electioneering and which is why, we saw the worst impact of Corona.

Just to place some things here, the main wage earners have died in families, children have been orphaned, people have lost their jobs, their wages have been down, they have been forced to withdraw almost Rs. 60,000 crores from the EPF and today it is a good day to ask, if you give only 4.8 per cent from the excise duty that you have collected on fuel in the last one year, which is nearly Rs. 4,54,000 crores, you will be able to give Rs. 5,00,000 for every life lost, but why is this government not looking to do that, fails my mortal comprehension.

It is also a good day to ask, where is the PM Cares fund? What is happening with that? What use is that money being put to? Why is there such a shroud of secrecy around there? Why is nobody talking about the PM Cares fund in the Government? This is not some private fund of the BJP. This is money that people like us have contributed to. This is money that has been collected under the seal of the Union Government, in the Prime Minister’s name, why is this money not being put to an appropriate use? I would only want to reassert 3 of our big demands.

Rs. 5,00,000 for every life lost during the Corona Pandemic. The shameful attempts to mask deaths must be stopped immediately. There should be a fresh survey of deaths in every state and adequate compensation should be given and fresh claims should be accepted. Thursday, September 23, 2021