Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Wednesday announced of donating 100 per cent of their basic pay for a month to the fight against COVID-19.
Apart from them, other legislature parties agreed to donate 30 per cent of their basic pay for eight months to contain the pandemic.
Earlier on May 7, leaders of three legislature parties including Mizo National Front (MNF), Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) and BJP had decided that 35 MLAs barring five Congress legislators would donate 30 per cent of their basic pay to Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF) to fight COVID-19.
The legislature parties meeting also agreed that all the 35 legislators will also donate Rs 50 lakh each of Local Area Development (LAD) fund for fiscal 2020-21 to fight the spread of coronavirus. The CPL was absent in the meeting.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, CLP leader Zodintluanga Ralte said the meeting of CLP on Tuesday decided that five of its MLA would hand over a cent per cent of their basic pay (Rs 80,000 each) for May directly to Chief Minister Zoramthanga to be used in the battle against COVID-19.
“All together we will donate Rs 4 lakh to fight Covid-19. We will also make an additional contribution from our salary if necessary,” he said.
He further said that they will also use their LAD fund as per the requirement to fight the pandemic.
Denouncing the allegation, Ralte said the CLP was not hesitant to help the government by donating their salary.
He said that they could not attend the legislature parties meeting on May 7 because they were informed late and that they have already set a tour programme to border areas.
Ralte claimed that he was the first person to make a statement that the MLAs should take the lead to help the government and not the employees.