Finance Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday alleged that the BJP-ledCentre was exhibiting “shameful and stepmotherly” treatment towards the Delhi government by not providing adequate relief assistance to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
Mr. Sisodia wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying ₹17,287 crore was provided to other States as emergency assistance for the fight against COVID-19 but the Centre was ignoring the needs of Delhi during this crisis and called it “disappointing”.
“The whole nation is suffering from COVID-19 and the Delhi government and the people here are working collectively with the Centre to fight it. Yesterday [Friday], the Centre provided emergency disaster management relief assistance worth ₹17,000 crore to all States but Delhi was not given a single rupee,” he alleged. This has come as “a huge shock” and “disappointment” to the government, he added.
Playing politics
“The Centre is not expected to play politics in such a situation, neither in a federal structure nor in these times of a calamity that has arisen before us…Delhi is the national capital of the country, and the Central and the State government are working together in Delhi to contain COVID-19. Not providing any kind of assistance to Delhi just shows that the Centre is playing politics even in the times of a calamity like COVID-19,” he stated.
Terming the situation “unfortunate”, Mr. Sisodia said that Delhi had been at the forefront of fighting a battle against the virus, alongside the Centre.
