Coronavirus: ITC's Sanjiv Puri lines up Rs 150 crore contingency fund

Cigarettes to hotels major, ITC Ltd has come up with a Rs. 150 crore contingency fund to address the exigency arising out of the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in the country.

According to the company’s chairman and managing director, Sanjiv Puri, this fund will be utilised primarily to provide relief to the vulnerable and most needy sections of society who are impacted by the pandemic and are facing significant disruption in their livelihoods.

Additionally, ITC will also also collaborate with district authorities to provide assistance to the district health and rural healthcare eco-system that reaches out to the weakest sections of society.

The resources under this fund will be channelised towards the protection and well-being of people involved directly to reach medicines, groceries, other essential goods including sourcing of agri-commodities by providing protective personal gear and hygiene products.

The company is of the view that under the prevalent situation in the country owing to the contagion, it is critical to ensure adequate availability of essential food and hygiene products.

“We are working with state authorities and local administration to ensure that manufacturing and distribution activities continue uninterrupted with bare minimum people. While we practice restraint and social isolation as a group, we will continue to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees, workforce and value chain partners”, an ITC spokesperson said.

ITC has already rolled out a slew of measures towards safety and wellbeing of its employees, including providing IT infrastructure and connectivity to enable them to work from home and maintain the highest standards of hygiene while promoting social distancing.

In a notice to the BSE, ITC said that owing to the spread of COVID-19 and the directives received from the central and state governments as well as local bodies, the company’s factories manufacturing essential items like atta, noodles, biscuits, snacks, soaps, sanitisers and others are operating partially with limited workforce.

“Apart from the factories manufacturing essential items, the company has suspended operations at its factories and plant locations”, the notice said.