Amid coronavirus lockdowns and the resultant hardships being faced by daily wagers and construction workers, several State Governments have come out with relief packages which range from free rations to one-time financial assistance of Rs 1,000 per family for below poverty line card holders.
The Indian Railways has also decided to release their full salaries even as it suspended all its passenger services till March 31 to contractual employees. In an order issued on Tuesday, the railways said that due to prevailing coronavirus situation in India and the stoppage of trains, several contractual staff engaged in on-board housekeeping service, sanitation, pantry car and commercial activities have been stranded and have to compulsorily stay at other places, while others have to be in readiness to attend the duties at a short notice.
Lauding the tireless services doctors, nurses and others attending to the patients suffering from Coronavirus, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami went ahead to announce a special one month’s additional salary to them.
He also announced an economic package of Rs 3,280 crore to mitigate the hardship faced by the underprivileged people. Palaniswami announced Rs 1,000 each for all family card holders. “The card holders can also avail rice, dal, edible oil and sugar for the month of April free of cost. Tokens will be issued to the consumers to avoid rush at ration shops. Unregistered pavement vendors will get an additional cash support of Rs 1,000, besides the Rs 1,000 announced for PDS cardholders. MGNREGS workers will get a special pay for two days,” he said.
The Andhra Pradesh Government has also come out with a package including to give free rice along with 1 kg tur dal besides Rs 1,000 cash to every family under the BPL category in the State.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a poor-friendly scheme styled as " Prochesta" under which each daily wage labour would get an assistance of Rs 1,000 per month.
Her Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao also announced an economic package worth of Rs 3,520 crore to provide relief to 8.8 million families having white (below poverty line) ration cards. In view of possible loss of livelihood and other difficulties from the week-long lock down, the government will provide 3.36 lakh tonnes of rice at the rate of 12 kg person for all BPL families at a cost of Rs 1,103 crore free of cost immediately.
Along with rice, the Government will also give a cash assistance of Rs 1,500 per family towards purchase of other food items, at a total budget of Rs 1,304 crore, according to the Chief Minister. This one-time economic package will benefit 85.4 percent of the total households in Telangana.
The Uttar Pradesh Government has released the first installment of Rs 1,000 each to 20 lakh construction workers.
In addition, the Uttar Pradesh Government will release Rs 1,000 each to daily labours, hawkers and e-rickshaw while Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu Governments have announced to give free rations along with Rs 1,000 as one time relief to daily wagers/workers.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, for his part, announced a Rs 500-crore relief package for the poor and the needy, and Rs 30 crore for construction workers who are likely to face financial troubles due the coronavirus outbreak.
About 1.5 lakh workers registered with the Building and ConstructionWorkers Board will be provided Rs 2,000 as one-time relief, he added.