Congress chief ministers have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging his government to pay a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the Covid dead, describing the promised Rs 50,000 as insufficient in the face of unprecedented death and suffering.

The party announced a nationwide agitation to highlight the “insensitivity” of the Centre towards Covid victims.

Following Rahul Gandhi’s declaration on Wednesday that the Congress would hold the Modi government to its responsibility as the National Disaster Management Act (NDMA) mandates that the compensation amount be Rs 4 lakh, the chief ministers of Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh wrote to the Prime Minister offering to deposit the states’ share of the compensation in the bank accounts of the victims’ families.

Under the NDMA, the Centre pays 75 per cent of the compensation while the state shoulders 25 per cent. If a compensation of Rs 4 lakh is paid, Rs 1 lakh will be the state’s share.

The Congress has written to the chief ministers of its alliance partners in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand. The Congress expects Uddhav Thackeray, M.K. Stalin and Hemant Soren to write to the Prime Minister.

In identical letters, the three Congress chief ministers stressed the need to stand by citizens in times of distress and entreated the Prime Minister to grant a compensation of Rs 4 lakh, saying the Rs 50,000 the Centre has pledged in the Supreme Court was insufficient.

Punjab chief minister Charajit Singh Channi wrote: “The welfare model of our Constitution provides our citizens with the basic right to education, health and other essential services. Along with this, our Constitution empowers every citizen to claim these as their constitutional right from the state.

“The Covid pandemic has heavily affected majority of the population in the country. People have died untimely deaths, businesses have shut down, people have been forced to migrate. Families have lost their earning members and the out-of-pocket treatment expenses incurred in private hospitals during the pandemic have brought them to the streets. Families have lost all their savings and are in huge debts.

“We demand that the Central Government implement its earlier order notified on March 14, 2020, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, where the Government made a commitment to disburse ex-gratia payment of Rs four lakh per deceased. The Central Government later revised this notification and reduced the ex-gratia payment to Rs 50,000. We feel at such times of distress, it is imperative that special consideration should be made to fulfil the earlier commitment of four lakh by the Government.”

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel sent similar letters to Modi. The letters underlined that the Centre continued to collect huge revenues by taxing petroleum products but refused to provide relief to the poor even as corporate entities were being given massive tax relief.

The Congress on Thursday also demanded a Covid Commission to study the gamut of problems caused by the pandemic, apart from ascertaining the correct number of deaths. The party announced that there would be demonstrations throughout the country on November 26, 27 and 28 in support of the demand for a compensation of Rs 4 lakh.

Memorandums will be submitted to the authorities in every district and state capital in support of the demand. The party on Wednesday launched the website www.4lakhdenahoga.com and urged citizens to register with it to seek increased compensation.

Indicating that the issue will figure prominently in the upcoming Assembly elections and Parliament session, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said: “This is not just a threat. Our track record shows that we blocked the government’s move to kill the Land Acquisition Act, we forced the government to give free vaccines to the people after repeated vacillations by the Prime Minister and finally the farm laws had to be withdrawn.”

He added: “Modi can arrange for compensation by stopping the Central Vista project, by cutting down on publicity blitz, by avoiding giving tax relief to crony capitalists.”

The Congress spokesperson alleged that the deaths during the second Covid wave were caused by the Modi government’s mismanagement.

Vallabh claimed that Modi didn’t understand the problems of the country and wanted to cut down on expenditure meant for the poor while providing assistance to the rich and powerful.