Chandigarh, April 28: The Punjab Congress has asked all people in the state to raise the national tricolor from their homes/rooftops on May 1 to protest against the Centre’s discrimination against non-BJP ruled states in the matter of extending support in the fight against Covid. The party would demand an immediate relief of Rs 20k crore from the Center.
The idea was mooted by PPCC president Sunil Jakhar, and seconded by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, at the VC with party MLAs today. The Chief Minister pointed out that the state was losing Rs 3360 crore monthly in revenue as a result of the pandemic and the lockdown/curfew and the state would end up with a loss of almost Rs 50k crores in a year. The state had received no help so far from the Centre to tackle the crisis, he added.
The event, coinciding with May Day (Labour Day), will serve to underscore the right of Punjab to central aid in this unprecedented crisis, said Jakhar. “Punjab is an integral part of India and the central government cannot discriminate against us,” he said, asserting that the party would demand Rs 20K crore as immediate relief to support the state’s efforts to combat the Covid crisis.
The PPCC chief further said the event will also be a mark of solidarity with the farmers, workers and all Coronawarriors who were battling the crisis from the front.
Terming it as a case of `seeking our right’, Jakhar said Punjab was not begging for anything but merely asking for its rightful share. In any case, he said, what Punjab was asking the central government was peanuts compared with what many other states had demanded.
Jakhar said the party would organize the national flags for all those participating in the May 1 event.
