CPI Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam has urged the Centre to provide unemployment allowances to those who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Viswam made the demand in the Upper House and asked the Centre to study the issue and within four months assess the number of people who lost their jobs during the period before announcing the relief.

He said the fact that the majority of them were left with no income must not be ignored in the 75th year of the Independence when the nation was celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

He also raised the issue of indiscriminate use of IPC Section 124 A, commonly known as sedition law. He said the government that often talked about discarding colonial laws had, however, been holding on to 124A, that was being used to describe as anti-national anyone who said anything the government found unpleasant.