Govt Package Only Worth Rs 3.22 Lakh Cr, PM Must Walk The Talk: Congress

The mega economic package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 12 and subsequently explained by Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman over the past 5 days is only worth Rs 3.22 lakh crore, Congress said on Sunday.

Anand Sharma, the Congress Rajya Sabha member, said the announcements made by Finance Minister didn't add up to Rs 20 lakh crore as announced by PM Modi on May 12.

Sharma said the central government was misleading the people of the country in name of economic package. "PM must walk the talk now," he said.

"I'm questioning finance minister, disputing Prime Minister and challenging the government to disprove me on numbers," Sharma said, adding he was ready for a debate with FM.

Speaking on thousands of migrant laboiurers currently trudging on highways and availing whatever available means to return to their native states, Sharma said the goverment must apologise to poor citizens left abandoned by it, "their fundamental and legal rights violated".

Also Read: In Final Tranche Of Economic Package, Govt Allocates Rs 40,000 Cr More for MGNREGA

"Finance Mininster should answer, not question," he said, adding, "government has to answer on plight of migrants forced to walk on roads due to lack of planning."

In the fifth and final tranche of the economic stimulus package, on Sunday raised allocation for employment guarantee scheme by Rs 40,000 crore over and above the Rs 61,000 crore budgeted earlier for MGNREGS, to provide employment to migrant workers moving back to their states.

This, she said, will help generate nearly 300 crore person-days in total.

The government also announced suspension of new bankruptcy filings on loan defaults for one year and raised the threshold for insolvency as it moved to ease COVID-19 pain for the industry.

It also announced a new policy for companies under state control saying public sector undertakings under the non-strategic sector will be privatised while those in the identified strategic sector would be capped by not more than four by merging some of them.