Provide Immediate Cash Transfers and Free Rations - Statement by Left Parties on 30 May 2020

DOCUMENT

May 30, 2020

Press Statement

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc have issued the following statement:

Provide Immediate Cash Transfers and Free Rations

The GDP growth rate data for 2019-20, released yesterday coinciding with the completion of the first year of the Modi 2.0 Government resoundingly vindicates what the Left parties have been saying regarding the destruction of our economy and the imposition of unprecedented burdens on the vast majority of our people.

On top of this ruination of people’s lives has come the scourge of the Covid pandemic and the kneejerk response of the government. The abrupt and unplanned lockdown with just four hours notice has imposed further inhuman miseries on the vast majority of our people. The plight of the migrants who continue to be tormented, anguished and keep losing lives through hunger, exhaustion and accidents is unbearable. The lockdown has neither strengthened our capacities to combat the pandemic nor has it provided any required relief to the people to survive in these conditions.

The Left parties, therefore, reiterate their demands:

1. A cash transfer of Rs. 7500 per month for a period of six months to all families outside the income tax paying bracket.
2. Free distribution of 10 kg food grains, per individual, per month for a period of six months.
3. Immediately provide free transportation with food and water for the stranded migrant workers to their native places.
4. Ensure a minimum of 200 days employment under MNREGA with enhanced wages. Extend employment guarantee scheme to the urban poor.
The Left parties call upon all their units all across the country to raise these demands to pressurize the governments to implement these, through protest actions, taking into account the concrete conditions prevailing there, maintaining the needed physical distancing and wearing masks.

Sd/-
Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary, CPI (M)
D Raja, General Secretary, CPI
Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI (ML)
Manoj Bhattacharya, General Secretary, RSP
Debabrata Biswas, General Secreatary, AIFB