After PM Modi asked for opposition's suggestions, Sonia Gandhi gives five to generate more funds for COVID-19 fight

In her "five concrete suggestions", the Congress interim president wrote to the government to stop the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista project in the heart of Delhi.

"At a time like this, such an outlay seems self-indulgent to say the least. I am certain that Parliament can function comfortably within the existing historical buildings," Sonia Gandhi wrote.

She suggested using the money to build COVID-19 hospitals, more diagnostic facilities for the disease and better equipping the frontline workers.

Making reference to the 30 per cent cut in the salaries of MPs and ministers, Gandhi suggested the government should make a "proportionate reduction of 30 per cent" in its own expenditure and employ the funds in helping the migrant worker and people in the unorganised sector to tide over the crisis period.

She also asked the government to withhold all foreign visits. "The amount (which is around Rs 393 crores for just the Prime Minister and Union Cabinet's trips in the last five years) can be utilised extensively in measures to combat COVID-19," she added.

She also pointed out the money spent on government ads and suggested that all such advertisements, barring those related to coronavirus-related information, should be stopped for the next two years.

The Congress leader aid said all the money collected through PM CARES Fund should be transferred to Prime Minister's National Relief Fund to "ensure efficiency, transparency, accountability and audit". Pointing out that Rs 3,800 crore was lying unutilised in the PM's relief fund, she said it was a waste of "waste of effort and resources" to have to separate funds for the distribution of relief money.