Priyanka Gandhi writes to the UP CM about the problems faced by the weavers of Varanasi

New Delhi (India), October 29 (ANI): Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the plight of weavers in Varanasi.

She demanded the state government to provide power to the weavers at a flat rate and restore electricity connections that were disconnected due to non-payment of dues at the existing rates.

The Congress leader also tweeted a letter and said, “Not providing electricity at a fixed rate to the weavers who made Banaras famous across the world and torturing them to recover their electricity bills at the new rate is highly inappropriate. The BJP government should protect weavers by imposing electricity payment at the fixed rate and arrears at the old rate.”

In the letter, she wrote that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government policies, the entire business of weavers has collapsed and the state government should help 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 program. Not only this, the weavers told me that when they continued their strike against the arbitrary electricity bill, the government called them for talks and the government representative also assured that their demands would be accepted, but despite this, no attempt was made to solve their problems,” she said.

The Congress leader listed her demands in the letter and asked the government to restore the plan to provide electricity at a fixed rate.

She also demanded an immediate end to “harassment of weavers for charging false fees” and asked the government not to disconnect power supply to weavers.

“The disconnected electricity connections should be restored immediately,” she added. (ANI)