Vedanta Ltd today announced setting up of a dedicated Rs 100 crore fund as part of its endeavour to join ranks with the Government of India to combat the widespread outbreak of deadly COVID-19.

The fund will cater to three specific areas –Livelihood of the daily wage worker, employees, contract workers, preventive health care and will provide timely help to communities in and around various plant locations of the company, informed Vivek Anand Public Relation Officer of Vedanta ElectrosteelSteels Ltd (ESL).

Anil Agarwal, Executive Chairman, Vedanta Resources Ltd. said, The world is currently putting up spirited fighting against COVID 19. The Government of India along with state governments have so far done exemplary work to contain the spread of the virus. 

It is critical that corporate houses should assist the Government in the fight against this deadly virus by contributing to the best of their ability so that the nation has adequate resources to take care of its citizens and provide both medical and financial assistance, he said adding, "This fund is the first step on Vedanta’s behalf and we will increase the corpus if the need arises."  Further, we will also assist the communities at our various locations in case of loss of livelihood.

I request every citizen in the country to stay safe and act responsibly and I am deeply concerned about our people but if we stay positive and take adequate precautions, we will emerge stronger, said Agarwal.

As part of other measures, Vedanta will not cut salaries or fire any staff, including temporary workers during this crisis period.

It has also decided to provide special, onetime insurance to cover Vedanta’s employees and their families against COVID-19, he informed. 

Further, all mobile health vans in operational areas will aide in preventive healthcare and each business unit will contribute towards the livelihood of daily wage earners around plant locations like tea sellers and vegetable vendors.