BENGALURU: Batting for people staying in rented accommodations, former Karnataka Chief Minister and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce a rent rebate to help them sail through economic uncertainties following the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Many countries have announced a rent rebate scheme for tenants during the COVID-19 emergency period. It is surprising that the Indian gover-nment has not made any such announcements. I urge the Prime Minister to immediately come to the rescue of people living in rented accommodations,” Kumaraswamy said in a tweet. 

Highlighting that a considerable chunk of workforce and students living in metro cities are dependent on hostels or rented accommodation, Kumara-swamy pointed out that with economic activity coming to a halt, paying rents would become very difficult for tenants.

“If the landlords insist on rent, the tenants cannot even go searching for new accommodation due to the emergency. Hence, government intervention is essential. The PM must announce a compre-hensive national rent rebate scheme for COVID-19 emergency,” he tweeted.