Freezing of DA insensitive, inhumane; govt should shelve bullet train, Central Vista projects: Congress

Congress on Friday slammed the Modi government for its “insensitive and inhuman” move to freeze dearness allowance (DA) of middle-class government employees and pensioners.

“To cut the DA of central government employees, pensioners and jawans is an insensitive and inhuman decision of the government. It should have suspended the Central Vista beautification project and the bullet train project running into crores of rupees,” Rahul Gandhi, former Congress president said.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked the government to curtail 30% of its own expenses and shelve the Central Vista redevelopment and bullet train projects to save money to be used to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

“This proves misconceived priorities of this government,” Surjewala said.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar hit back at the Congress for “fighting with the central government” at a time when the entire country was waging a war against COVID-19.

“When the whole country is fighting a war against COVID-19, Congress is only fighting against the central government. This behaviour of Congress at this time will be questioned someday and they will have to explain it then,” Javadekar said.

The government on Thursday had frozen inflation-linked allowance for its 1.1 crore employees and pensioners, a move states were likely to follow, helping save a combined Rs 1.2 lakh crore that could be used to combat the coronavirus crisis.