The Bihar Foundation, a forum forthe state's diaspora which has Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its patron and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi as its chairman, has been reaching out in a big way to people stranded elsewhere on account of the nationwide lockdown.The Foundation has set up relief camps in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Surat, Ahmedabad and far-off states like Goa and Sikkim, extending help to as many as 3.17 lakh people since March 28, according to the Chief Minister's office (CMO).Members of the Bihari diaspora are providing these stranded people with food and medicine.All the arrangements are being made by the Foundation, while the entire expenditure, which also includes direct cash transfer of Rs 1,000 into the bank accounts of the migrants, is being borne by the Chief Ministers Relief Fund.On Tuesday, more than 30,000 people got "ration packets" containing five kilograms of rice, three kilograms of wheat flour and 1.5 kg pulses in addition to edible oil, vegetables, spices and a cake of soap which is expected to help a person sustain for 15 days, the CMO said in a statement.Out of these 30,144 recipients of ration packets, more than half 18,349 were in Delhi, from where a large number of migrant labourers had made a scramble back home late last month triggering anxieties about the spread of coronavirus infection en route.The Bihar Foundation is also running seven shelter homes six in Maharashtra and one in Tamil Nadu which can accommodate more than 6,500 people. Around 3,000 migrant workers have already taken shelter in those homes.The CMO statement said more such shelter homes would be set up as and where the requirement arose.The Bihar Bhawan in Delhi - the office of the resident commissioner - has been maintaining coordination between the state government and those stranded people.A communication received from the Bihar Bhawan said it is getting positive feedbacks from various parts of the country - Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi-National Capital Region, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.The Bihar Bhawan has also been involved in helping those having suffered a bereavement in their family to reach their homes by making arrangements for their travel.
