Funds amounting to Rs 120 crore that would otherwise be allocated to MLAs for various schemes should be used as income support for those struggling during the lockdown, Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) and Workers Power of Meghalaya (WPM) told Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in a memorandum.
The two groups said that the Rs 2 crore that each MLA receives for public projects should be consolidated into a single fund to grant daily wage workers, domestic workers, taxi drivers, shop assistants, street vendors and “marginal” farmers Rs 5,000 in two instalments.
“Working class families are staring at hunger, disease and homelessness,” TUR and WPM said. “This is a time to support the working classes of Meghalaya and therefore, keeping in mind the financial crisis in the state, it is but right to consolidate [the] funds to help mitigate the crisis being faced by the toiling people of the state.”
TUR also demanded that 25 percent of the salaries of top grades in the civil service (state and central) be used to take care of out-of-pocket medical expenses of the working class. The tax refund also offered by the state government to IAS and IPS officers should also be diverted for this purpose, it said.
