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The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary Sachin Sawant has challenged the Maharashtra state BJP president Chandrakant Patil to prove that the Centre is bearing 85 per cent of migrants’ railways travel fare or else apologise to the people.
He also alleged that the Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman and Patil were not telling the truth about the subsided costs of the travel for the migrant labourers.
Sawant in a press statement said that while the State Government are bearing all the expenses for the train tickets of the migrant workers, the BJP leaders are repeatedly misleading people by making false statements about the Centre bearing the costs.
He also alleged that on the ticket bookings of the migrants, the Railway Ministry was levying an additional ₹50 surcharge on the Shramik special trains. The train tickets were cheaper before Covid, and now the government is collecting Corna tax.
On financial support package
Commenting on the Modi government's financial support package, Sawant said that the expectation that the Modi government’s financial aid package would help people from all strata had been dashed. Instead of providing financial aid, the government has offered loans only. The Modi government needs to be reminded that it was supposed to a package of financial aid , not a budget and a debt fair. It is now clear that the package is only 1.6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product and not 10 per cent as announced by the Modi Government, he said.
The state's coffers are empty. The revenue of the states has completely collapsed. In such a critical situation, the package is nothing but pushing the states for more debt. Sitharaman’s statement that the Centre has devolved tax revenue up to ₹46,038 crore to the states although there is a revenue crunch is misleading as it is the privilege of the states, Sawant added in the statement.
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