Kerala Opposition Leader calls for a COVID relief panel

‘Time to focus on revival of economic and social life in the wake of the pandemic’

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has called upon the State government to set up what he called a ‘COVID-19 relief commission’ to look into all aspects of the revival of economic and social life in the wake of the devastation caused by the pandemic. He said the commission should consist of experts from different walks of life, who would suggest ways to overcome the crisis. Mr. Satheesan was speaking at the Ernakulam Press Club on ‘Life after COVID 19’. He said there was serious economic deceleration, and that the government needed to increase the spending capacity of people. One of the options would be, he said, to transfer funds directly to ordinary people. Transferring a corpus of around ₹10,000 crore to people who are hard-pressed by the pandemic will result in circulation of money and bring around ₹1,800 crore to the State exchequer in the form of taxes, he said.