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Congress seeks power, water charges waiver in Delhi; slams Kejriwal government over school fee
New Delhi: The Congress on Friday urged Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to waive fixed power charges and water bills for all establishments that have been shut
New Delhi: The Congress on Friday urged Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to waive fixed power charges and water bills for all establishments that have been shut during the lockdown.
In a 10-point charter of demands, the party also demanded that the Delhi government not charge students school fees and pay salaries to teachers in aided schools as well as workers in MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises).
Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken insisted that migrants and daily wage workers be incentivised, and that the state government should proactively take steps to help those in distress in Delhi due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Addressing a news conference through video-conferencing, Maken sought Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be notified as regulations for delivery boys in the national capital to help stop the spread of the deadly virus through them.
Maken also demanded that the 89 quarantined people who came in contact with a pizza delivery person infected with Covid-19, be tested immediately.
The Congress leader pointed out that the delivery person was sent away by various hospitals without being tested.
Maken said testing should be ramped up in the national capital, even as he asked if Delhi had entered the community transmission stage given that 135 people have been kept under investigation.
He also said migrants were the backbone of any city, and that they should be given Rs 7,500 per month immediately to help them cope with the crisis and make them feel safe in Delhi and other towns, he added.
The Congress leader also demanded payment of two months of free ration to the poor and vulnerable, advance payments of pension to senior citizens and widows, and risk allowance to sanitation and frontline health workers.
Maken also asked for an unemployment allowance of Rs 5,000 to all unemployed in the national capital.
He attacked the Delhi government for giving a go-ahead to private schools to charge one-month tuition fee and said the state should bear a major part of the expenses on salaries of their teachers.
“It is wrong to ask private schools to take a month’s fee. How will the parents pay the fee when there is a lockdown? The Delhi government should pay 75% of expenses borne on teachers’ salaries so that these schools get relief and waive three-month fees,” added Maken.
Earlier in the day, Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia announced that no private school in the national capital could hike fee or charge anything from the parents other than one-month tuition fee.
Maken also claimed that 55 health workers in Delhi have so far tested positive for coronavirus.
