Life goes on. PM has announced the big package and left the nitty-gritty to Nirmala Sitaraman to explain which she is trying earnestly to do without much success. Because, as it turns out about 12 of the 20 is actually old monk in a new bottle. Only 8 is new! She is trying her best to make it look new but not an easy task even with the abundant use of professional jargon to camouflage the stale stuff as brand new manna from heaven. That there is still no earnest effort to attend to the needs of the suffering migrant population on an immediate basis is indeed glaring and unexplained. The ration card thing is old stuff which is lagging due to the perennial implementation glitch. No immediate relief is going to come. Then the rental accommodation offer – it will take minimum 4 years to implement it, as per experts. Nice to hear and start dreaming of a cosy rented accommodation. But not when you, with your family is travelling on foot to your village 500 kilometres away without even a vada-pav stall open en-route, not to speak of the frightening prospects of travelling through deserted landscapes without a human in sight for kilometres . Need to try this sometimes to gauge the enormity of the problem a very large poor population of the country is going through these days because the govt. could not assure this vulnerable section ,of basic food and shelter if they stayed back.
What the crores lying in the PM CARES fund is being intended for, if not to help such poor and vulnerable sections of society in time of their dire need such as now, of the people out in the open because the lockdown has left them without a job, income and a place to stay . With no help visible from anywhere, they cannot be faulted for deciding to undertake the arduous journey on foot to their native villages on an average 500 kms away just because the govt. , waxing eloquent day in and day out about doing this and that for the poor of the country simply feign ignorance of their plight and refuse to do anything concrete to mitigate the suffering of this section of people needing urgent attention.
I am surprised no one in the govt. even acknowledges this reality and has taken any steps to attend to their immediate problems. When lakhs of buses and double that number of drivers are idling away in the country why have these unfortunate poor migrant population to foot it out to their far away villages? Why doesn’t the great 20 lakh crores offer make no immediate provision to attend to their immediate problems? Instead of 5 kg rice and 5 kg atta with 1 kg channa, the finance minister should have arranged buses to reach them to their native villages. If they continue to walk, the atta, rice and channa may well remain in Nirmala Sitaraman’s godowns as dead people wouldn’t surely claim their quotas. The sight of these poor people walking with their trunk boxes and other goods on their heads together with the old and young of the family on deserted roads to destinations hundreds of kilometres away is surely haunting and show our country in very poor light. Tomtoming about sending masks and chloro-quine to other countries is no compensation.
To end, I only wish and pray the govt. opens its eyes wide open and prioritize. Rented accommodation and 1 kilo channa can wait - provide them the basic amenities they need now for their very survival. Ensure the 20 lakh crores reach the targeted people rather than a large percent of it ending in the pockets of the middle men through intended or unintended bureaucratic bungling . Educate and equip people to learn to live with Corona like other diseases and encourage them to get on with their lives. Isolate/ treat those who show symptoms or fall sick. Allow the rest to carry on with their lives. Jai Hind!
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