Khattar govt coercing state employees to donate to Covis-19 fund: Surjewala

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday said the M L Khattar-led government in Haryana is coercing state employees to donate for the a coronavirus relief fund.

"But this time state government is pressurizing its employees to submit their voluntary approvals for the donations," the chief spokesperson of the Congress alleged in a news conference addressed through video conferencing.

Surjewala said Haryana has a long standing culture of sharing and helping out each other whenever such a need has arisen and state government employees have always made huge amounts of voluntary donations for various calamities in the past. 

"We are not against voluntary donations but the forceful manner in which it was being done by the Haryana government is what we are against. It cannot be a coincidence that the salaries of previous month of thousands of government employees have not been disbursed by the Khattar government so far," he said.

 

He alleged that heads of various departments are putting pressure on their employees that they should contribute 10-20 per cent of their monthly salary towards Haryana Coronavirus Relief Fund.

"Similar reports of heads of the departments and senior officers pressurizing their staff members for 'donations' to Haryana Coronavirus Relief Fund can be verified and confirmed by checking official WhatsApp groups of different departments. In these groups, those employees who have not given 'voluntary approval' are repeatedly given reminders to put pressure on them," he further claimed.

He said the Haryana government has till April 5 raised nearly Rs 64 crore from 1,64,718 employees of the state.

Surjewala said it would have been better if the Khattar government had started this initiative by donating three month salaries of the chief minister, ministers, MLAs, MPs, chairpersons and members of the Boards/Corporations/ Commissions for the Coronavirus Relief Fund.

23 more Covid-19 cases in Haryana, state tally reaches 102

23 more Covid-19 cases were reported from Haryana on Tuesday, taking the total count of coronavirus cases in the state to 102.

According to the state health department, out of the total 23 positive coronavirus cases reported today, seven are from Faridabad and 16 are from Nuh.

So far, 15 people have been cured of Covid-19, while two have lost their lives to the infection in the state, a bulletin by the state Health Department stated.