President Ramnath Kovind has already donated his salary for the month of March in PM Care Fund and keeping in view of the economic condition of the nation, he announced a thirty percent cut in his annual salary. The Rashtrapati Bhawan was going to buy a new limousine car this year which has now been cancelled. Other expenses including purchase of products for beautification have also been halved. Even the guest list has been cut short and so has the food menu. Where in normal times some or the other part of the Rashtrapati House would be under maintenance, the works have now been called off. Expenses incurred on President’s tours have also been halved and the President will now take aid of technology to reach people directly. Really, the President has tried to present an example before the nation.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s alleged ignoring of migrant labourers could prove dear to him. An online survey supported by BJP has revealed that since lockdown was announced, there has been a tremendous fall in Nitish’s popularity. The survey also says that if Nitish contests in the upcoming assembly elections on his own and not with BJP, he would win on a meagre twenty seats. If Nitish and BJP come together to contest under one banner, then JDU’s candidates have a winning chance of fifty percent while BJP candidates could have a winning edge of seventy percent. However, now there could be a tussle between BJP and JDU over distribution of seats where Nitish wants 15-20 seats from the saffron party while the BJP can pitch in equal bifurcation of seats. If Nitish continues with his ‘big brother’ attitude, then BJP could give him 2-5 seats extra with the condition that next CM will be decided by elected legislators.

The dream project of Union minister for Highways and road transport Nitin Gadkari is taking shape even while the country is under lockdown. The total cost of the project is estimated at one lakh crore rupees and after the project is completed, the journey between Delhi and Mumbai will be completed in fourteen hours. The government is not going ahead in the project on PPP mode. Once the green signal is given to this project, the next major task of land procurement will be initiated and the government has started giving toll rights as well since the government believes that the toll itself would give it twenty five thousand crore rupees.

When poultry owners were culling their birds fearing businesses taking a dip in lockdown, they were questioned the reason behind their action. They answered that they wont fetch good price for chicken in markets since the amount they were spending to feed the birds, not even half of it was being recovered. Hence, the migrant labourers who have been kept in isolation in UP, the state government is paying forty rupees to NGOs for their meal ie 120 rupee for the entire day whereas, states like Rajasthan have been paying NGOs 300 rupees. When NGOs in UP questioned officials over the same, their quota was increased to seventy rupees but the file is still stuck under red tapeism while the labour is leaving isolation centres and reaching their homes.

Most trains, for the ‘ghar-wapsi’ of labours , are being run for Uttar Pradesh. Out of a thousand trains, four hundred are for UP. When a presser was called in this regard by Railway Minister, a clarification came that states like Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha did not raise any demand. On this the Chief Ministers of three states showed their previous videos where they had raised a demand and accused the Railways minister of leading the country astray.

In the ongoing Corona crisis, by the time the government came out of its slumber, fifty days had passed since the lockdown came into effect, and lakhs of migrant labour had started on their way home travelling thousands of kilometers amid hunger and braving the tropical sun. A few reached their destination, several others were put in isolation and then there were those who became a victim of the road itself. According to an estimate there are eight crore migrant labours who had left their homes in search of job. The railway has decided to run three hundred trains and maintaining social distancing around 1200 labours are ferried in each train. An estimate says that the railways will have to run 66,666 trains to ferry these eight crore migrant labours and the time taken to complete this task is 182 days. The Railway claims that of the total expenditure incurred on running special trains for labours, it is realising only fifteen percent from states since these trains are only travelling one way with passengers while returning devoid of them. Keeping in mind social distancing the middle berth has been removed and the passengers are being provided with food and water for the journey. So the railway is incurring an expense of six to eight thousand rupee per person of which they are charging only fifteen percent. It should be noted that the Modi government has allotted total one thousand crore to the railways to take the migrant labor home and if sources are to be believed, the railways is chugging out fifty lakh rupee for each train journey.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.