Unplanned implementation of lockdown causing chaos: Sonia

Amid the nationwide lockdown due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) met for the first time on Thursday through video-conferencing, with party chief Sonia Gandhi saying that while the 21-day nationwide lockdown may have been necessary, the “unplanned manner” of its implementation has caused chaos and pain to millions of migrant workers all over India.

Mrs Gandhi urged the Central government to prepare and publish a Common Minimum Relief Programme and sought special assistance for farmers as well as medium and smallscale enterprises.

“The 21-day national lockdown may have been necessary but the unplanned manner in which it has been implemented has caused chaos and pain to millions of migrant workers all over India. It has been heart-breaking to see lakhs of people walking for hundreds of kilometres towards their villages without food or shelter,” Mrs Gandhi said and called for solidarity in helping the disadvantaged during the crisis.

The virtual meeting, organised through a customised version of online platform ‘Zoom’, was attended by the party’s state chief ministers, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former finance minister P. Chidambaram, general secretary in-charge of UP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi. This was the first CWC meeting that Mr Gandhi attended since quitting as party chief after the party’s Lok Sabha debacle in May 2019.

Addressing the meeting, Mrs Gandhi said the country is in the midst of an unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis and asked Congress-led governments in states, frontal organisations, leaders and workers to step forward and offer help to families that are at extreme risk.