How to serve migrants in Mumbai is Maharashtra govt's problem, not Centre's: Abhijit Banerjee tells Rahul Gandhi

"The question of how to serve migrants in Bombay [Mumbai] city is the Maharashtra government's problem, or the Bombay city municipality's problem. You can't have.. the federal government resolving that," Banerjee told the former president of Congress, which has been calling out the Modi government over its "unplanned" lockdown leaving migrants in the lurch. 

With Congress turning the heat on the Modi government over the migrant issue as it even announced to pay up for the train fares of the stranded migrants returning home, the party chose to have a conversation with the Nobel laureate on the economic impact of Covid-19.

Abhijit Banerjee interacted with  Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday via video conferencing when he said that to revive the COVID-19-hit country's economy a bigger stimulus package is needed.

Stressing on the need to give cash in hand to create demand, Banerjee, who became the second Indian after Amartya Sen to win the Nobel prize in Economics, said spending is the easiest way to revive the economy.

During the video conference, Banerjee said: "We really haven’t decided on a large enough stimulus package. We are still talking about 1% of GDP. The United States has gone for 10% of GDP."

“I would say bottom 60 percent of the population, we give them some money, nothing bad will happen in my view. If we gave them money, well some of them might not need it. Fine they will spend it. If they spend it, it would have a stimulus effect,” he said.

Banerjee even said that the Indian government should immediately issue 'temporary ration cards' for three to six months for every person who needs food grains to run their lives.

"Use those ration cards for transferring money, wheat and rice to them,” the economist said.

Rahul Gandhi had earlier interacted with former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan via video conferencing over the issue of dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

Speaking on the issue of lifting lockdown, Banerjee said: " You can’t take out the lockdown when a lot of people are getting sick."

"We need to be aware of disease’s path before taking a decision on lifting the lockdown,” he cautioned.

The Indian government last week extended the nationwide lockdown to tackle COVID-19 for two more weeks. It was earlier scheduled to end on May 3.

Rahul interacts with Banerjee a day after migrants rail ticket row:

The Congress party on Monday engaged themselves in a bitter war of words with the government over the issue of stranded migrants being made to pay for the train tickets as the Indian Railways operated special trains to transfer them to their homes from different cities.

Hours after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said her party would pay for the tickets of the migrant workers, the Centre on Monday clarified that 85 per cent of the ticket fares are borne by the Indian Railways and the remaining 15 per cent has to be paid by the state.

On a day Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said her party would pay for the tickets, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra took to Twitter to respond and hit back at  Rahul Gandhi's attack over the issue.

In the tweet, he wrote: "Rahul Gandhi ji, I have attached guidelines of MHA which clearly states that 'No tickets to be sold at any station'. Railways has subsidised 85% & state govt to pay 15%. The state govt can pay for the tickets (Madhya Pradesh's BJP govt is paying). Ask Cong state govts to follow suit."

This came after Gandhi attacked the railways for allegedly charging poor migrant labourers ticket fare, even as it donated over Rs 151 crore to the PM-CARES Fund.