Sonia Gandhi donates Rs.117.77 Cr MPLAD fund for battling Covid-19 in Raebareli

17:00 April 24

Letter written to Rae Bareli DM

Hyderabad: Congress interim president and MP from Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli, Sonia Gandhi has a letter written to the District Magistrate, directing him to utilise her remaining Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

This comes when the whole country is grappling with the stress of the second wave of the deadly virus. Meanwhile, India reported more than 3.46 lakh cases and 2,624 people died in the last 24 hours. This is the third consecutive day when over three lakh cases were reported.

"It is to inform you that Rs 117.77 crore is remaining in my MPLAD fund for fresh approval. Therefore, I would like to recommend spending all my remaining MPLAD funds to save the people of the Raibareli constituency in the current Covid-19 pandemic. At present, Covid-19 pandemic is widely spread across the country, due to which the public is facing extreme difficulties," the Congress Chief stated in her letter.

Recently, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing her deep concern and sense of anguish over the new Covid-19 vaccination policy. 

She also made a scathing attack on the Central Government by calling it an "arbitrary" and "discriminatory" policy, adding it will "exacerbate" the existing challenges amid the COVID crisis. She had also urged the Prime Minister to intervene immediately and reverse this decision.

Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), has predicted the "COVID-19 tsunami" in mid of May to hit the country.

The Delhi High Court took note of the findings and said that there is a need to think about how to deal with it. A Division Bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli noted that according to IIT, Delhi's peak will come in mid-May and it will be like a "tsunami". 

"How are we trying to build the capacity? We need to think of that too," the court said.

The Court questioned the preparation as on date to deal with mid-May and observed that people who could be saved, are being lost. It said that this is our responsibility to see that those who can be saved are brought back from death and to reduce the mortality rate. 

The High Court was hearing a plea by Maharaja Agarsen Hospital and various other hospitals concerning to shortage of oxygen. The counsel of hospitals urged the Court to issue directions for ensuring security to the hospitals. 

The Hight Court recommended providing security arrangements to hospitals if required and said "We know how people react when they lose their dear ones.....let's not have a law and order situation."