BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa met an all-party delegation comprising leaders of Congress, Janata Dal-Secular as well as representatives of farmer unions on Friday to discuss relief and containment measures over Covid-19. Friday’s meeting was the second such instance of the government- opposition coordination on battling the coronavirus. Apart from the two all-party meetings held since March, Yediyurappa had met Congress leaders separately in April over the pandemic.
Opposition leaders, led by Congress Legislature Party chief Siddaramaiah, urged the state government to seek a Rs 50,000-crore package from the Union government to assuage losses caused by the lockdown. A host of topics from farmers to discrepancies in the distribution of relief were discussed. According to Siddaramaiah, considering the financial crunch, the state should urge the Union government to announce a financial package.
“The state government should urge the Union government to declare the Covid-19 situation a national calamity and seek Rs 50,000-crore special economic package for Karnataka,” he said, adding that the Rs 1,610-crore package announced by the state barely covers a fraction of people affected by the pandemic. “The compensation is unscientific,” he said. The opposition parties submitted a 24-point memorandum to the chief minister on immediate measures that need to be taken, including enhanced compensation for farmers and unorganised sector workers.
The JDS said ASHA workers and anganwadi staffers should be given a daily payment of Rs 200 for their works as frontline corona warriors. H K Kumaraswamy and H D Revanna of the JDS and S R Patil, Eshwar Khandre, D K Shivakumar, Krishna Byregowda and V S Ugrappa of the Congress were present at the meeting. The chief minister was accompanied by deputy chief ministers CN Ashwath Narayan and Govind Karjol along with ministers Suresh Kumar, BC Patil and Basavaraj Bommai.
The opposition also sought a special sitting of the Legislative Assembly to take up matters related to the lockdown impact. The Congress even agreed to do away with TA/DA for legislators for the session. “We also raised the issue of BJP leaders siphoning off government aid for lactating mothers and rebranding it as their own relief material. We have also insisted that labourers should not be forced to work like bonded labourers. They have the dignity of life.
They are nation builders and all decisions need to be taken in consultation with them,” said Shivakumar, president, KPCC. Yediyurappa, who gave the opposition a patient hearing, assured them that the Covid-19 containment strategy in Karnataka was better managed in comparison with other states. The government will consider more compensation to other sectors in the coming days, Yediyurappa is said to have told the opposition leaders while accepting their recommendations for consideration.