Lesson that can be learnt from UP: Yogi's govt to compensate daily wage earners

As India prepares to fight the global pandemic COVID-19, Central and State governments have been calling for travel restrictions and lock down of public places to contain the spread of the virus. In this light, the Yogi Adityanath Government in Uttar Pradesh has stepped in to rescue the people at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. The Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday announced to compensate these daily earners with state support. Taking to Twitter, the UP CM informed that the loss of wages will be compensated by the government by depositing money in bank accounts of wage labourers for which a committee has been set up.

The CM announced that the state government will bear the medical expenses of those infected with the corona virus. He also mentioned that there will be no deduction of salary for those patients who take leave for coronavirus treatment.

According to reports, a 3 member committee headed by the UP Finance Minister and comprising of the labour and agriculture ministers have been set up who will submit a report within 3 days for implementing this scheme.

UP Cabinet Minister Shrikant Sharma said that the committee will analyse the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak so that the livelihood of the poor and daily wage earners is not affected. He added that the state is looking forward to use the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) medium for payments.

The UP government has decided to close all tourist spots till March 31. Cinema halls, malls have been ordered to close down till April 2. Private companies have been asked to let their employees to work from home. Similar measures for government employees are also being considered. The state government has mandated free treatment of coronavirus patients, while the government and non-government employees have been assured that their salaries would not be cut during the work of the home time period.