Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabudhe
With every BJP leader asked to come up with novel ideas to fight coronavirus, party vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabudhe has developed a platform to connect those who provide help and those seeking help. Sahasrabudhe, who is active with the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini (RMP), got together with another outfit, the Connecting Dreams Foundation (CDF), and created the ‘I Can India Co-Win Action Network’, which will support people who need help gets it in a short span of time from the pool of those who are ready to provide it. With volunteers READY —- around 2,000 already in —- the platform is said to have already helped around 10,000 people. The platform also trains “Covid Warriors” to work on the ground.
Cuts To Move On
The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats on Tuesday issued gazette notification reducing constituency and stationary allowance of MPs by 30 per cent. States have also started following the Centre’s move to cut salaries of ministers and legislators in the middle of the pandemic. While Himachal Pradesh and Tripura governments announced their decisions to deduct 30 per cent salaries of ministers and MLAs, Uttar Pradesh is set to take a decision of this effect on Wednesday.
Batchmates In Fight
In an interesting coincidence, four IAS officers of 1983 batch are playing a pivotal role in India’s COVID-19 battle. Health Secretary Preeti Sudan is of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, Environment Secretary C K Mishra, who is leading an empowered group on isolation beds, etc, is of Bihar cadre, while among the officers in the PMO overseeing all this are advisers Bhaskar Khulbe of West Bengal cadre and Amarjeet Sinha of Bihar cadre.