Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday (May 13) wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging to reduce GST on COVID-19 vaccines and other COVID-19 related medicines procured by state governments to 'zero' for a certain period of time after consulting with GST Council since state govt themself are procuring them, reported ANI.
According to reports, the Chief Minister in the letter to the PM also demanded to release pending GST compensation and rice subsidy to the state, and provide Adhoc Grants- in-aid to state governments to compensate them financially for the impact of COVID and raise the borrowing limit of the state by one per cent from the existing 3 per cent.
Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin to chair meeting of all legislature parties at the Secretariat at 5 pm today
Meanwhile, the newly elected Chief Minister Stalin will hold a meeting of leaders of all legislature parties at the Secretariat on Thursday evening, according to an official release. The meeting is scheduled at 5 pm. The meeting is being held to discuss the steps to be taken to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. The Chief Minister will chair the meeting.
Stalin has already sent official invitations to the leaders of all legislature parties and two representatives of each party with representation in the Tamil Nadu assembly have been invited.
Tamil Nadu reports 30,000 fresh COVID-19 cases on May 12
With fresh cases crossing 30,000 on May 12 and 293 deaths reported across the state, the government wants to have a detailed discussion with the representatives of political parties to tackle the Covid crisis and the intervention at the grassroots levels.
A senior bureaucrat in Tamil Nadu who does not want to be named while speaking to IANS said, "The COVID crisis is mounting and we are reaching the breaking point. Local grassroots intervention with the support of the political parties is the need of the hour and the chief minister has taken a right stand to hold a meeting of the legislature party representatives. Something positive will come out of this meeting."
(With agency inputs)
