Sonia Gandhi urges PM to ramp up vaccine production, transfer Rs 6000 per month to poor due to COVID-19 spike

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to ramp up domestic production of Covid-19 vaccines and allow emergency use authorization of all the vaccine candidates that have the required clearances without any further delay, in view of the fact that some states were running out of vaccine stocks.

She demanded that all equipments, instruments, medicines and support infrastructure required to deal with the Covld-19 crisis should be made completely exempt from GST. “Even ventilators, oximeters and oxygen cylinders presently attract GST as do key life-saving drugs like Remdesivir and Dexamethazone,” she wrote.

She also appealed to the PM to put in place a scheme of minimum monthly guaranteed income and transfer an amount of Rs 6,000 per month in the bank accounts of the poor in view of restrictions being imposed in the wake of the spike in Covid-19 cases across the country.

“As we move ahead to control the situation by resorting to curfews, travel restrictions, closures and lockdowns, we will again be restricting economic activity that will hit the already beleaguered people especially the poor and the daily wagers very, very hard. It is with all earnestness that I appeal to you to put into place the much needed scheme of minimum monthly guaranteed income in place and transfer an amount of Rs 6,000/- in every eligible citizen’s account,” the Congress President wrote.

“Similarly, with reverse migration of labour already having started, it will be critical to immediately address their needs of safe and seamless transportation, as indeed their suitable rehabilitation in the host as well as home states,” she added.