Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati hit out at the Union and state governments, including that of UP, for discrimination in extending relief of various schemes for the poor launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight the pandemic.

“It is a matter of concern that even as several schemes have been launched to help the poor in fighting the economic crunch during pandemic, the governments are biased in extending help to the targeted groups,” Mayawati said.

“Whether a state is ruled by the BJP, Congress or any other party, there has been discrimination in extending help to the poor and only those are benefiting who support ruling outfits,” she asserted.

She appealed that the governments should ensure that there were no bias in extending benefits of welfare schemes to the poor and the needy.

Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of extending distribution of free food grains to the poor till November, the BSP chief asked the Centre to extend the facility till the pandemic was over.

“In order to check ignominy of starvation due to unprecedented hardship & unemployment due to pandemic and lockdown, PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna must be continued till the pandemic was over,” she tweeted on Wednesday.

The former chief minister of UP also expressed concern over rising petroleum prices and said that while on one hand prices of essentials were soaring due to the pandemic, on the other, the spike in fuel prices had further worsened the situation. She demanded that the government should roll back the price rise immediately.  

Commenting to a video showing health workers tossing the bodies of COVID-19 victims in a large pit in Ballari (Karnataka), the BSP chief said that it was the “height of cruelty and insult to humanity” and demanded stern punishment to the guilty

After the video surfaced online, Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu said that the erring workers were suspended on Tuesday.