Coronavirus: UP provides cash relief to over a million daily wage workers

The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday gave Rs 1,000 each in to more than a million daily wage earners, including labourers, battling the three-week lockdown against the coronavirus.

The relief amount has been directly credited into the bank accounts of over 1.06 million beneficiaries estimated at Rs 106 crore, of which Rs 4.85 crore was credited during the day.

The cash handout scheme is estimated to cost the government Rs 353 crore and benefit 3.53 million daily wagers, comprising 2.03 million construction labour registered with the state labour department, apart from 1.5 million rickshaw pullers, hawkers and kiosk owners.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had constituted a high level committee headed by UP infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC) Alok Tandon to monitor the cash relief scheme. The government had also announced that those left out of the scheme would be included for the relief payment depending upon the recommendation of the local authorities.

Meanwhile, the state has facilitated the reopening of 31 of the total 33 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and mask manufacturing units in the state, owing to the growing demand. These units had closed down following the lockdown order. Besides, 410 of the total 452 medicine plants have also been reopened and steps are being taken to restart the remaining units by resolving their grievances pertaining to labour and passes.

Migrant workers board crowded buses to their respective villages, amid a nationwide lockdown, in Ghaziabad on Sunday. Photo: PTI

According to a statement issued by the UP government, the IIDC led committee had made contacts with more than 19,000 industrial units, of which 16,142 have so far distributed salary and wages to their employees, while the remaining 3,000 units were in the process of disbursing it. Of the more than 3,000 industrial units, which were lying shut after the recent lockdown, nearly 2,800 have been reopened. About 1,800 units had complained regarding labour passes, of which the issues pertaining to 1,588 plants were successfully resolved.

The state is taking steps to increase the supply of wheat flour in the market to overcome the shortage due to lockdown and panic buying. While 587 flour mills are functioning, 28 mills are yet to operate at optimum capacity due to supply shortage.

Similarly, 277 oil and 114 pulses mills are currently operational and the state is talking to the management of the remaining closed units.

Last month, Adityanath had constituted nearly a dozen committees headed by senior bureaucrats to monitor the different steps being taken in the backdrop of coronavirus. Nodal officers have been appointed for different states as well to coordinate with the respective provincial governments for the food and lodging of UP origin migrant labourers during the interim lockdown period.