, 2 May 2020
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema, terming the middle-class families as the backbone of state and country’s economy, demanded that the state and union governments should announce special financial relief to them in this hour of global distress amid Corona pandemic.
In a statement issued from party headquarters on Saturday, Harpal Singh Cheema said that the outbreak of Corona virus had hit the middle- class families hard, alleging that they were on agenda, neither of the state nor central governments. He added that there had not been a single concession or relief announced for the middle-rung families in the state and the country, alleging they had been paying the electricity bills, home or vehicle loan instalments (EMIs), VAT on diesel and petrol, with no concessions, even as the prices of essential items of daily use, including ration, pulses, oil and vegetables, had sky-rocketed two times amid corona.
Cheema said that in this hour of global crisis, every middle-class families had not only helping keep their own kitchen fires burning but also of the workers dependant on them. He accused that both the state and union governments had failed to distribute rations to the poor and needy, saying that had the middle-class families not come forward to extend a helping hand to the poor and needy in this hours taking upon them their social and moral responsibilities, starvation would have been hit them more harder than the killer corona virus.
The AAP leader has appealed to Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce special reliefs and financial aid, including interest-free electricity bills and instalments of all kinds of loans for the current financial year to the middle-class families, besides reduction in VAT rates on petroleum products so that they could check the inflation hitting the roof.