International COVID-19 aid: Maharashtra Congress hits out at Centre

Mumbai, May 07: The Congress on Friday said the Centre was not planning to give any part of the aid received from 40 countries to fight the COVID-19 pandemic to Maharashtra.

In a statement, the Congress' state unit spokesperson Sachin Sawant said "the Narendra Modi government's hatred for Maharashtra has surfaced once again".

"It has excluded Maharashtra from the list of states where it intends to distribute aid arrived from 40 countries during the corona period. Aid is being given to BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Bihar and other states," he alleged.

Sawant said state governments also had a right to this aid and demanded an answer from former chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on the "grave injustice" being committed by the Centre.

The Centre was giving priority to BJP-ruled states when it came to Remdesivir, oxygen and vaccines and Maharashtra, being an opposition-ruled state, was being treated unfairly, he added.

Taking on the Centre on another issue, Sawant said what was the need to spend "Rs 20,000 crore" to build a Central Vista, an ambitious project that involves constructing a new Parliament complex among other things, amid the corona pandemic.

Sawant lashed out at state BJP leaders for alleging irregularities in the Manora MLA residence project tender here but remaining silent on the waste of resources in the Central Vista plan.

The Congress leader added it was the previous Fadnavis government which had decided to rebuild the Manora complex in 2018, and the NBCC, a Central agency appointed by it, had demolished the building.

The delay by NBCC increased the cost of construction by Rs 550 crore, while MLAs have to be given a cumulative sum of Rs 3.5 crore every month in the absence of the Manora complex to stay, Sawant claimed. He said it was due to this delay that the work was given to the state PWD by a committee comprising the chief minister, Assembly speaker and Council chairman, at a cost of Rs 875 crore.

He said the state level BJP leaders need not advice the Congress or the Maharashtra government on how to fight the coronavirus pandemic and, instead, should tell the Modi dispensation to tackle the outbreak rather than build a "luxurious palace" for the prime minister.