Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 21: Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla today said that COVID-19 crisis has come at a time when India’s economy was struggling and in such times, a lockdown in a country where 700 million people live with very little savings to fend for their families for a month without income exacerbating the pains of slowing economy.
“Public and private companies in the formal sector will ensure salary payments and continuity of employment, but what about the informal sector? Bhalla asked, adding about 85% of India’s workforce is employed in the informal sector who are worst affected.
“Union Government must plan to give unemployment benefits to a section of organized workers who may lose their jobs due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The Government’s ‘Atal Beema Vyakti Kalyan Yojana’, which provides unemployment insurance to workers who have subscribed to the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme, should cover such workers during the pandemic. The ESI is a self-financing health insurance scheme for formal sector workers in India managed by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Under the scheme, which has been operational since July 2018, workers who become unemployed get compensation in the form of cash up to three months of unemployment. But this can be availed only once in a lifetime,” added Bhalla.
Meanwhile, continuing to extend his helping hand by distributing ration and other essential supplies among needy persons in various parts of the Gandhi Nagar constituency amid lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, Bhalla distributed ration items at Digiana Ward-45 and Satwari Narwal Paine Cantonment Wards 1, 2 and 7.
Prominent among those who accompanied Bhalla included Amrit Bali Block President, Sandeep Dogra, Rita Kanojia, Balbir Singh, Moeein Latif, Aman Bawa, Beant Singh, Davinder Singh , Monu Kumar, Iqbal Singh, Sanjay Gupta, Amna Kalyan, Manju Mashi, Dev Raj Konojia, Pandit Harbans Sharma, Manu Kumar, Harbajan Lal and Pankaj.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla emphasized the need to ramp up testing of suspected Corona patients besides augmenting the capacity and facilities of the laboratories.
He demanded upgrading of the facilities in the designated COVID-19 hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir so that these can provide Level-3 treatment to the Coronavirus patients.
He said that increasing the sample testing should be focus of the authorities in order to have a clear picture about the disease for tackling it in a better way.
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