Opposition To PM: Scrapping MPLADs Funds, Arbitrary Decision

Floor leaders of Opposition parties told the prime minister at the all-party meeting over video conference on Wednesday, that scrapping of MPLADs funds assigned to each member of Parliament, for a period of two years, was an arbitrary decision. Some of the floor leaders are supposed to have conveyed to the Prime Minister that the decision of utilising MPLADs should be left to state chief ministers.

Opposition leaders reported having asked the Prime Minister to make quality PPE kits available to doctors and healthcare professionals and make COVID-19 testing free across the country.

The floor leaders of opposition parties are said to have asked PM Modi to release dues from the Centre to states immediately. The floor leaders are also reported to have sort an increase in FRBM fiscal limit.

Among the senior leaders of Opposition parties who were present at the video conference are Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress and Sharad Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo. K Keshava Rao represented the Telangana Rashtra Samiti TRS, Vijayasai Reddy, floor leader of YSR Congress Party in the Rajya Sabha and Mithun Reddy from the Lok Sabha, Ram Gopal Yadav from Samajwadi Party were among those who attended the video conference.

PM Modi had earlier called up former Prime Ministers and Presidents, including Pranab Mukherjee, Pratibha Patil, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Deve Gowda. He also called up Opposition leaders and chief ministers including Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, among others.