Chandigarh, May 27
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday wrote a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh demanding to provide financial assistance on the lines of the Delhi government, to the taxi drivers, laborers, shopkeepers, small artists and other poor sections during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Harpal Singh Cheema stated that the entire country including Punjab had been going through a tough time for the last two years due to the Covid pandemic. At such a time, the Punjab government imposed a lockdown, due to which the work of the common people came to a standstill and they were forced to leave their work and sit at their homes, he said.
Cheema said that due to the lockdown, every section was going through financial hardship. He said that the governments of different states in the country were providing different types of assistance to the people at such times. Similarly, the Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government had announced financial assistance of Rs 5,000 for over 2.10 lakh laborers and 1.56 lakh drivers and other poor sections, which had also started reaching the beneficiaries, asserted Cheema. He said that even in Punjab, various sections of the people including taxi drivers, laborers, small shopkeepers and artists were going through a recession. “Taxi and auto drivers have also been unable to pay their vehicles’ installments due to restrictions on traffic movement,” he added.
The LoP further said that the immigrant Punjabis were also not coming to Punjab this time due to the closure of international flights, which was causing further decline for taxi drivers. Cheema said that the Chief Minister should intervene in this matter and issue orders to the loan companies to stop these installments for some time. He appealed to the Chief Minister to provide financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to the taxi and auto drivers along with the laborers, on the lines of Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government so that they could support their families.
Cheema said that in addition to this, the people who make their living by organising colorful programmes on weddings, including small shopkeepers, were also going through difficult times without any work. “Along with waiving off the electricity bills of such needy small shopkeepers, financial assistance should also be provided to small artists,” he added. The AAP leader said that as the Chief Minister of the state, the people of Punjab were now expecting Captain Amarinder Singh to take them by the arm in this difficult time. Cheema demanded Captain Amarinder Singh to take immediate action in this matter and provide financial assistance to these sections so that the lives of the people, who were going through a difficult period, can be saved from getting worse.
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