‘Suspend central vista, bullet train projects; restore DA’
New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) The Congress has slammed the government for freezing the Dearness Allowance (DA) of central government employees and pensioners and demanded scrapping of the bullet train and central vista projects to save 30 per cent from the government expenditure.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Cutting the expenditure on dearness allowance is inhuman.”
Instead of cutting expenditure and wasteful expenses, government is hurting middle class employees and pensioners, said Randeep Surjewala, Chief spokesperson of the party.
The government should scrap bullet train and central vista projects and save Rs 1,30,000 crore and divert the money to fight COVID-19, added Surjewala.
The Congress said that the decision of the government will adversely impact the morale of the armed forces.
As part of the austerity drive, the Centre on Thursday announced suspension of DA hike for the central employees till July 2021. Moreover, ministries and departments have also been categorised for fixing a cap on their quarterly expenditure, limiting it to 15-20 per cent of the annual budget expenditure for FY21 in the first quarter.
–IANS
miz/sdr/bg