In a fresh directive, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials to provide financial help to all destitutes and also ration if they did not have ration cards so that nobody slept empty stomach in the state.

“Destitutes without ration should be given Rs 1,000 as financial help and officials should ensure that they get a ration card so that they get food from the PDS shops,” the chief minister said during a review meeting on lockdown at his official residence here on Saturday.

Yogi said that if any destitute suffered from a serious ailment and was not covered by Ayushman Bharat Yojana or Mukhyamantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, he or she be given Rs 2000 as immediate relief. “The treatment of such person should be arranged and the family should get Rs 5000 if a destitute dies,” he said.

The chief minister directed officials to continue arranging food and drinking water for migrant workers at state borders and make similar arrangements for migrants going back to other states from UP.

Yogi said that migrant returnees should be taken to quarantine centres for medical screening. “The healthy ones should be sent to home quarantine with ration kits and the unwell migrants should be sent to medical facility. Home quarantined migrants should be given Rs 1,000 sustenance allowance,” he said.

The chief minister further said that surveillance committees were helping in containing the coronavirus infection. “Proper communication should be maintained with the committees to get regular feedback from the ground. To maintain supply chain and enforcement of lockdown, regular police patrolling is necessary. Social distancing and avoidance of crowd should also be ensured,” he said.

“District magistrates and chief medical officers should regularly make inspection to ensure smooth running of Covid hospitals and it must be ensured that coronavirus positive persons are kept in Covid hospitals or quarantine centres while non-Covid hospitals should be used for treatment of other patients. The testing facilities should also be ramped up on regular basis,” he said

Yogi said that prior arrangements be made for next phase of food grain distribution drive starting on June 1.

“Social distancing has to be maintained during the distribution of ration and no irregularity or under-weighing should take place,” he warned.

The chief minister took cognisance of setting up 3,133 cattle-feed banks and asked officials to expedite it. He said that the loss of lives due to lightning should be minimised by using latest technology while alerts could be issued by studying weather forecast.

Yogi also directed officials to spray chemicals to control the impending locust menace and asked officials to coordinate with Maati Kala Board to make clay available to potters by digging ponds.

“The free of cost ‘mitti’ (clay) will help potters financially and pond digging will help conserving water,” he said.