The Bihar government has reached out to
more than 1.50 lakh people who belong to the state but are stranded elsewhere on account of the nationwide lockdown and have sought help, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday.
He was addressing representatives of Panchayats and urban local bodies across the state, through video conferencing, whom he lauded for rising to the occasion and working in tandem with the state government to meet the crises that have arisen out of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said the Chief Ministers Secretariat and the state disaster management department have, in the past few days, been flooded with "about 3000 phone calls whereby the governments attention has been drawn to the plight of those hailing from Bihar but stranded in other states.
"We have set up 44 teams of officials for getting in touch with such people and coordinate with governments of the respective states for providing them with help. As of now we have received information about 1.60 lakh such people who are being helped", he said.
Referring to the mass exodus of migrants from the Delhi-NCR region, Kumar said "we succeeded in helping them reach their respective villages where necessary protocol with regard to quarantine and medical tests is being followed".
He said as of now the number of people trying to cross the states borders was "negligible" but camps were functional along the boundaries and across Bihar where those caught up away from their homes, including people who might have come from other states in search of work, were being looked after.
Highlighting the manifold rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and those losing their lives to complications arising thereof in the last fortnight, Kumar said "it must be understood that the nationwide lockdown announced by the Prime Minister is aimed at ensuring physical distance between people which is the only way the infection can be prevented from spreading".
He, however, added that understandably there were activities like harvesting of crops which could not be deferred and remarked "those involved in such activities will be allowed to venture out of their homes. Instructions are in place to the effect.
"But all our elected representatives, including the Panchayats, must ensure that social distancing is taken care of when people are out in the fields," he added.
The Bihar Chief Minister, whose ambitious environment conservation drive Jal Jeevan Hariyali Yojana aims to combat climate change, rued the untimely rains that lashed many parts of the state in February and March and said the farmers who may have suffered losses would be provided assistance by the government.
Besides, he said, an assistance of Rs 1000 was being remitted into the bank accounts of each ration card holding family in the state to ease the economic distress that may have resulted from the restrictions in place.
He also gave the assurance that "our being a poor, resource-strapped state will not come in the way of adequate medical assistance for the needy and protection for health workers".
"A sum of Rs 100 crore has been released from the Chief Ministers Relief Fund. A corona eradication fund has also been set up into which money has pumped from the Mukhyamantri Kshetra Vikas Yojana. A sum of Rs 50 lakh has been diverted to the fund from each legislators quota. We would welcome if they come up with the offer of contributing more", Kumar said.
Notably, the Chief Minister who is a member of the legislative council has himself contributed Rs seven crore towards the corona eradication fund from his quota.
Under the Mukhyamantri Kshetra Vikas Yojana, which is the MLAs local area development fund in a new avatar, each member of the bicameral legislature can recommend works of Rs three crore per year.
The state has 243 members in the legislative assembly and 75 in the legislative council.
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