The Congress leader highlighted certain key issues affecting the country amidst lockdown.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over issues related to Public Distribution System (PDS) in West Bengal and distress of migrant labourers amidst the lockdown.
He said that the PDS system in West Bengal needs to be strengthened as the food grains are not reaching the beneficiaries in the state.
"I would like to reiterate that Union Government food grains (Under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana) are not reaching to the beneficiaries of the state. Hunger is not gender, religion or political affiliation specific," Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote in the letter.
"PDS in West Bengal needs to be strengthened further given the poor plight of the people, who need adequate food to survive themselves," he added.
Moreover, he requested the Prime Minister to arrange for the travel of migrant workers, who are living in 'inhuman conditions amidst the lockdown, to their destination free of cost.
"Once the lockdown is eased, I shall appreciate your direction to the Ministry of Railways to carry these penniless people to their destination free of cost," Ranjan stated in the letter.
"Migrant labourers from any state would surely have a shy of relief and remain grateful for your effort and announcement in this regard," he added.
Migrant labourers are stuck in different parts of the city amidst the lockdown, itching to go back home to their families after most of them lost their jobs since businesses started to close down in the country.
At least nine migrant labourers returning home amid coronavirus lockdown were killed in two separate incidents on March 28.
Seven migrant labourers in Gujarat were walking on foot to return to their homes in different parts of the country. On reaching the Maharashtra border, they were returned back by the police. They were taking the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Expressway to return when a tempo allegedly hit them near Virar. While four of them died, there are said to be in hospitals in critical condition.
In another incident, five people died near Shamshabad Highway in Hyderabad as a truck hit Bolero pickup van. Around 30 people, all of them labourers and their families, were going from Suryapet in Telangana to Raichur in Karnataka. Five of them died on the spot while six have been admitted to Osmania Hospital with serious injuries.
In Delhi, hundreds of people, most of them migrant labourers and semi-skilled workers, crossed the state border to return home during the initial phase of the lockdown.
These people, in small and big groups, were seen crossing the Delhi border on foot at Ghazipur in an effort to reach their homes in different districts of Uttar Pradesh in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown.
Notably, this comes at a time of when social distancing is being repeatedly emphasised to contain the spread of the virus, but conditions have forced the working class to traverse the distance by foot, braving the risk of the disease, when they see no other option.
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 "Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhury")
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