[Marxistindia] Second Tranche of Financial Package A Cruel Hoax

[news from the cpi(m)]

May 15, 2020

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued  
the following statement:


Second Tranche of Financial Package
A Cruel Hoax

The much-awaited second tranche of the Rs. 20-lakh crore financial  
package regarding the migrant workers, farmers and the poor has turned  
out to be a cruel hoax. The Finance Minister’s speech made false  
claims of what the Central Government had done to help people.

Not a single paisa is being transferred from the Government to any of  
the worst effected sections of our people, specifically migrant  
workers, street vendors, domestic workers, fishing workers etc. This  
package is mainly provision of loans.

The only direct benefit is a package of Rs. 3500 crores for extension  
of the provision of free foodgrains. Having cancelled crores of ration  
cards in the name of corruption making the poor suffer, the FM now  
makes a grand gesture that all families without ration cards will also  
get 5kg foodgrains and 1kg pulses free. Repackaging schemes like  
one-nation-one ration card that will see the light of the day only by  
mid-2021, is of little consequence to the sufferings that crores of  
people face today.

The Finance Minister underestimates the number of migrant workers and  
has put it at 8 crores. Parliament was informed in March 2020 that the  
current estimate is 10 crores. This means that the allocations for  
free food will not cover the entire population.

The Finance Minister misleads the country by claiming that there was a  
40 to 50 per cent increase in MNREGA workdays generated. In April last  
year, 27.3 crore persondays were generated compared to 11.1 crore this  
year, the lowest in a decade.  Thus, unemployment is going to haunt  
all those lakhs of migrants returning to their villages. The Finance  
Minister had dealt with the issue of retrenched workers with  
callousness. Instead of linking all easy loans to business and  
enterprises to their protection of the work force and guaranteeing  
direct financial aid to ensure at least a part of their salaries, the  
Finance Minister declared that those who would be retrenched would be  
‘skilled’ for other jobs. Such is the anti-worker policy mindset of  
this Government.

Moreover, the Central Government has no right to give any instructions  
regarding the use of CAMPA funds. It is for State Governments in  
coordination with local communities mainly tribal, who are affected by  
projects who will decide how the funds are to be spent.

The claim that the Centre had paid for the food requirements of  
migrant workers in shelters adds insult to injury. The Central  
allocations to the SDRF are a legal mandatory provision which is an  
annual allocation regardless of whether there is a pandemic or not. It  
is a 75:25 per cent ratio with State Governments. In fact the Centre  
has not given a single paisa extra to any of the States. It is now  
claiming that this legal requirement is part of the generosity of the  
Centre!

At a time when the single-minded focus of the country and the people  
must be in combating this pandemic and ensuring a healthy life and   
livelihood for the people, this government, in the most callous   
manner, sees the pandemic as an opportunity to carry forward its   
agenda of economic reforms that enrich the rich and further impoverish  
  the poor.

•	When unemployment has grown by fourteen crores since the lockdown  
was imposed, 80 per cent of the urban poor having lost their jobs, it  
is essential that the government announce a minimum cash transfer of  
Rs. 7500 per month for the next three months for all families outside  
of the income tax paying bracket.

•	When it is estimated that one-third of the households hardly have  
any resources to survive beyond a week, it is essential that 10 kgs of  
foodgrains per individual, per month, for the next six months be  
distributed free from the stock of 77 million tonnes in our godowns.

•	With the deepening of the agrarian distress due to the lockdown, a  
one-time loan waiver for our farmers is essential for their survival.

•	Large scale financial assistance to the States is an urgent necessity.

•	Most immediate is to organize free transportation of our migrant  
workers who have been on the roads for the last fifty days losing  
lives, suffering deprivation and agony.

The Modi government has failed to meet any one of these objectives.  
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that these immediate measures  
outlined above must be implemented urgently.




For CPI(M) Central Committee Office