Nitish for speeding up disbursement of aide to those affected by lockdown

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on

Tuesday called for speeding up the process of disbursement of financial assistance to those who were stranded at places far away from their homes, within the state or in other parts of the country.

At a high-level meeting he chaired to review the coronavirus situation, Kumar noted that 3.80 lakh requests for aide have been received from migrant workers stranded in other states and financial assistance of Rs 1,000 each has been provided to 1.42 lakh by way of direct cash transfer.

Besides, efforts were being made to ensure that such people were provided with items like rice, pulses and edible oil wherever they were and messages of gratitude have been received from many such beneficiaries, most notably some residents of Vaishali district in Tamil Nadu who have sent videos on WhatsApp, sources in the Chief Ministers office said.

 

The chief minister also directed that seeding of ration cards with Aadhar be completed at the earliest so that the state governments resolve to reach out to every poor family with a financial assistance of Rs 1000 was achieved.

"We are treating the pandemic as an aapada (disaster) and it is a stated policy of our government that those affected by a disaster shall have the first claim on the governments resources", Kumar said.

He also took stock of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) which has afflicted a few children in some north Bihar districts and claimed one life.

He issued instructions for taking preventive measures to halt in its tracks the spread of the brain fever which had killed nearly 200 children last year.

Instructions were also issued by the chief minister for putting a check on bird flu and swine flu of which a few cases have been reported.

Besides, officials were directed to ensure that compensation be expeditiously paid to those who have suffered crop losses on account of untimely rainfall and hailstorm.

A sum of Rs 518.42 crore has been allocated for the aforementioned purpose, the chief minister underscored.

Meanwhile, several religious, social, medical and business organizations came out with contributions to the chief ministers relief fund from which money is being drawn for providing relief to those suffering economically on account of lockdown.