More on Covid-19

NEW DELHI: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday lashed out at the BJP alleging that the party is spreading communal virus in the society when the need is to take coronavirus unitedly, while she applauded the success story of fighting Covid-19."When we should be tackling the coronavirus unitedly, the BJP continues to spread the virus of communal prejudice and hatred. Grave damage is being done to our social harmony. Our party will have to work hard to repair the damage." Sonia Gandhi said in the working committee meet.Sonia Gandhi's allegation comes in the wake of Palghar incident where two sadhus were lynched by mob and the section of people which was painted as communal, the truth was contrary to the reality.She said that the compassion, large-heartedness and alacrity that should be forthcoming from the Central Government is conspicuous by its absence and the focus must continue to be on successfully engaging with health, food security and livelihood issues.Eleven crore people who are in need of subsidized food grains remain outside of the Public Distribution System and 10 kg of food grains, 1 kg of pulses and half a Kg of sugar to each person of the family every month must be given, in this hour of crisis. At least 12 crore jobs have been lost in the first phase of the lockdown, she said.Unemployment is likely to increase further as economic activity remains at a standstill. It is imperative to provide at least Rs 7,500 to each family to tide over this crisis. Migrant labourers are still stranded, jobless and desperate to return home, Sonia Gandhi added."While the procurement policies and disrupted supply chains need to be fixed without any delay and facilities must be made available to the farmers for the next round of Kharif crops which will begin in the coming two months," said Sonia.The MSME sector employs close to 11 crore people today, it is imperative that a special package be announced urgently for their survival, Sonia demanded.She applauded the health workers, medics and para medics for the work they are doing in the fight against the virus.