Priyanka Gandhi Asks Telecoms to Help Workers in Coronavirus Times

Priyanka Gandhi has asked the telecom companies to provide free services for a month to enable the poor migrant labourers connect to their families.

In separate letters to the Head of Airtel Sunil Bharti Mittal, Reliance Head Mukesh Ambani and heads of BSNL and Vodafone, she talked about the condition of the lakhs of migrant labourers walking to their native lands, without food, water medicines and shelter, as they had lost their scope of earning  their daily wages in the metros and hoped to at least get some food in their villages where they could work on agricultural land.

Priyanka Gandhi said the telecom companies could contribute towards uplifting the plight of these labourers in the current Coronavirus attack. Most of these migrant workers walking for several hundreds of kilometres to reach their native villages have no money to recharge their mobiles and cannot connect to their relatives.

"I feel it is our national duty to help the people of the country in this hour of crisis," she said.  "I urge you to make your mobile services free for one month so that those men and women reach out to their near and dear ones easily and not face hardships in talking to them in this difficult phase in their life," she said.

The Congress General Secretary said she is writing to them about the plight of lakhs of migrant labourers who are trying to survive against all odds to reach home while staying without food and water  and endangering themselves by exposing to the possibility of contracting the Coronavirus attack.

Priyanka Gandhi said such an initiative would help reduce fear and uncertainty in their lives.

It must be remembered that at the time of writing this story, at least 17 migrant workers have died  of hunger and hardship. When compared to the Coronavirus death toll of 25, this is quite significant that while  many people are being kept safe in their homes, many others are forced to die without food and water.