One year on, access to subsidised food remains a crucial challenge for migrant workers
The government’s One Nation, One Ration Card scheme has operational difficulties, a survey in Ahmedabad finds. Migrant workers in Ahmedad. | Aajeevika Bureau.
When Narendra Modi imposed a lockdown on March 24 last year to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it had a brutal impact on millions of India’s informal workers. Left overnight without the daily-wage jobs that sustained them, many of them did not have the documents necessary to access social security benefits – most notably, subsidised food through the public distribution system.
Among them was Madhumita, a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur, who lives in Ahmedabad. “We had to mortgage our jewellery,” she said.”We have not yet recovered it six months on. Work is not regularly available and buying food and other daily essentials is becoming expensive. We even have to buy drinking water.’
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal had said last month that his party would fight all elections in the next two years in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. All these states have Assembly polls in 2022 and, barring Punjab, are ruled by the BJP.
The renewed national ambition after a drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when the AAP had contested 432 seats including Kejriwal unsuccessfully fighting Narendra Modi, is now poised to bear fruit. The AAP is trying to achieve national party status that entitles an outfit to use its symbol in any election across India and secure a place in public consultations at all levels of government.
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday demanded the resignation of Union minister Smriti Irani over charges of corruption levelled against her by an international shooter, and said a thorough probe should be initiated to ascertain the truth. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference that the charges levelled are serious and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should order an independent judicial probe to punish the guilty.
International shooter Vartika Singh had recently moved court accusing the Union textile minister and two others for demanding money to make her a member of the central women s commission, days after she was herself named in a police complaint.
Congress Seeks Smriti Irani s Resignation Over Charges Levelled by Shooter Vartika Singh
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The Congress on Monday demanded the resignation of Union minister Smriti Irani over charges of corruption levelled against her by an international shooter, and said a thorough probe should be initiated to ascertain the truth. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference that the charges levelled are serious and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should order an independent judicial probe to punish the guilty. International shooter Vartika Singh had recently moved court accusing the Union textile minister and two others of demanding money to make her a member of the central women s commission, days after she was herself named in a police complaint. The MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh s Sultanpur has fixed January 2 for a hearing after which it will decide if the case falls under its jurisdiction, according to her lawyer.
Cong Demands Smriti Irani s Resignation Over Corruption Charges; Asks PM To Intervene
Shooter Vartika Singh accused Smriti Irani and two others for demanding money to make her a member of the central women s commission
PTI 28 December 2020 PTI photo PTI 2020-12-28T20:27:50+05:30 Cong Demands Smriti Irani s Resignation Over Corruption Charges; Asks PM To Intervene outlookindia.com 2020-12-28T21:04:42+05:30
The Congress on Monday demanded the resignation of Union minister Smriti Irani over charges of corruption levelled against her by an international shooter, and said a thorough probe should be initiated to ascertain the truth.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said at a press conference that the charges levelled are serious and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should order an independent judicial probe to punish the guilty.