Manmohan Singh to head Congress consultative group on COVID-19

New Delhi, Apr 18: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will head a consultative group of the Congress on COVID-19, to deliberate on current matters, including those related to the coronavirus outbreak, and formulate the party's views on various issues.

The 11-member group also comprises former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, former Union Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram, Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh, Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari, party general secretary K.C.

Venugopal and party's Data and Technology wing chief Praveen Chakravarty. Randeep Surjewala will be its convenor. Financial journalist-turned-party spokespersons Supriya Shrinate and professor Gourav Vallabh are also members.

"The consultative group will virtually meet every day to deliberate on matters of current concern and formulate views on them," Venugopal said in a statement.

The opposition party has repeatedly demanded scaling up the testing and providing personal protection equipment (PPE) to doctors, nurses and health workers.

It has also urged the government to spell out steps it planned to take to mitigate the woes of migrant labourers, poor and people stranded across the states.