Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the plight of the weavers in Varanasi.
She demanded that the state government provide electricity to the weavers at a flat rate and restore electrical connections that were disconnected due to non-payment of dues at current rates.
The Congress leader also tweeted the letter and said, "Not giving electricity at flat rate to the weavers who make Banaras world-famous and torturing them for the recovery of electricity bills at the new rate is highly wrong. The BJP government should protect the weavers by imposing payment of electricity at the flat rate and the arrears at the old rate."
In the letter, she said that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government policies, the entire business of weavers has collapsed, and the state government should assist them in this difficult period.
"In 2006, the UPA government implemented a plan to provide power to weavers at a flat rate. But your government is doing a lot of injustice to the weavers by ending this scheme. Not only this, the weavers told me that when they went on strike against the arbitrary electricity bill, the government called them for talks. The representative of the government also assured them that their demands would be accepted. But despite this, there was no attempt to solve their problems," she said.
The Congress leader further listed her demands in the letter and asked the government to restore the plan to provide electricity at a flat rate.
She also demanded the "harassment of weavers in the name of fake dues" should be stopped with immediate effect, and asked the government not to disconnect the power connections of the weavers.
"Electricity connections that are disconnected should be restored immediately," she added.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor