Venkaiah Naidu urges Rajya Sabha MPs to contribute from MPLAD fund to combat coronavirus

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday appealed to the Rajya Sabha MPs to contribute at least Rs 1 crore initially from their Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds to supplement the Centre's efforts in the fight against coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter to the Members of the upper House of Parliament, Naidu, who is the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, referred to the extraordinary situation arising from the outbreak of coronavirus and the plethora of measures being undertaken by the government and other stakeholders, including the private sector, to control and mitigate the situation for the people.

Highlighting the requirement of the enormous amount of resources - financial, material and human- to successfully combat COVID-19, Naidu stated that the central government is pooling financial resources from various avenues to augment the availability of funds at the national, state and district levels.

Meanwhile, the Vice President also urged the common people to come forward and contribute to the PM-CARES Fund to strengthen disaster management capacities.

While appreciating various civil society organizations for providing help to the needy and poor in this hour of crisis, he appealed to people to stay safe and healthy and strictly follow the guidelines issued by the government.

Earlier, the Vice President held a meeting with the speaker of Lok Sabha, Om Birla, Secretary Generals of both the Houses and spoke to the Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha and leaders of different political parties in Rajya Sabha about MPLADS.

He also appreciated the gesture of people from various walks of life in contributing towards to the PM-CARES Fund and appealed to all to come forward and donate to this noble cause, while reminding everyone of India's age-old tradition of share and care, which is the core of our philosophy.

Appealing to one and all to take care of the stranded migrant labour in their areas, Venkaiah Naidu requested state governments, voluntary and philanthropic bodies to provide them with food and shelter. He also wanted the agencies which hired the migrant labour to come to their rescue.

The Vice President also spoke to Minister for State for Labour and Employment, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, and to Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and enquired about the coordination with various state governments on the issue of migrant labour.