The Bihar government has reached out and provided relief to over 5 lakh distressed residents of the state stranded in Delhi and other parts of the country amid the nationwide lockdown prompted by the coronavirus outbreak, a senior official said here on Sunday.
The migrants from the state have been provided shelter, meals and dry rations to help them cope with the crisis situation, since the announcement of the lockdown on March 24, the official said.
Heartbreaking images of jobless labourers and marginal workers walking back home, after suspension of transport services, were splashed on all TV channels and social media platforms, following the imposition of the nationwide lockdown. Some of them were grounded midway by the administration in other states.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had appealed to them to stay put wherever they were and promised that his government would provide necessary assistance to them.
Kumar, who had last Monday launched a pioneering scheme to provide special assistance of Rs 1,000 each to the residents of Bihar stranded outside, seeks daily feedback about relief distribution, the senior official said.
A sum of Rs 10.35 crore was transferred on the inaugural day of the programme to the accounts of 1,03,579 people under the direct benefit transfer scheme, he said.
Of them, 7,281 hailed from Saran district, followed by 6,821 from Muzaffarpur, 6,792 from Madhubani, 6,569 from East Champaran, 6,348 from Sitamarhi and 5,897 from Siwan.
Pratyaya Amrit, Principal Secretary, state Disaster Management Department, said at least 47 relief centres, funded by the state, are operating in far-off places, including Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Sikkim.
These centres are being run by Bihar Foundation chapters and their affiliated organisations, he told PTI.
The Bihar Foundation is a forum for the state's diaspora which has Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its patron and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi as its chairman.
A sum of Rs 5 crore has been given to the foundation from the chief minister's relief fund, Amrit noted. A statement issued by the disaster management department said, "The number of beneficiaries for today stands at 53,849, and the cumulative total since the start of the programme on March 28 is at 5,26,341."
Amrit said 30 staffers of his department formed a part of a task force, which man helpline numbers round-the-clock to establish contact with those stuck in other states and guide them on how to avail the facilities provided by the administration.
A crisis management group headed by Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar meets every day to take stock of the situation, he added.
Official sources said a total of 2,84,674 applications have been received by the government from the stranded people. Relief was being doled out to them following verification.
Of the 2,84,674 applications, 55,264 were from Delhi, followed by 41,050 from Haryana, 30,576 from Maharashtra, 25,638 from Gujarat, 23,832 from Uttar Pradesh, 15,596 from Punjab, 15,428 from Tamil Nadu and 9,527 from West Bengal.
Bihar has so far reported 64 COVID-19 cases, and one death.
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