Covid-19: UP transfers cash to bank accounts of 2.3 million poor

State identifying more beneficiaries for the Rs 1,000 relief

Amid the coronavirus lockdown, the Uttar Pradesh government has provided cash handouts of Rs 1,000 each to more than 2.3 million poor people.
 

These beneficiaries include urban and rural labour, construction workers, rickshaw pullers, destitute, railway coolies, street vendors etc, whose livelihood was hit directly on Saturdayfollowing the abrupt lockdown last month to curb the spread of the disease.

Chairing a review meeting in Lucknow, chief minister Adityanath directed officials to identify the remaining beneficiaries under the scheme, so that cash could be transferred into their bank accounts.

So far, the state has spent over Rs 236 crore on the scheme out of its own financial resources.

Last month, the government had estimated that the cash handout would benefit nearly 3.53 million daily wagers, comprising 2.03 million construction labourers registered with the labour department, apart from 1.5 million rickshaw pullers, hawkers, kiosk owners etc. A committee headed by UP infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC) Alok Tandon was constituted to monitor the scheme.

Meanwhile, the CM has asked educational institutions, hospitals etc not to cut the salaries of their contractual staff over their absence from work during the lockdown period. The same directive has been issued for the workers and staff of the private sector industrial units.

So far, more than 6,000 industrial units, primarily related to the medical equipment, medicines, food items etc have been reopened after the UP government resolved their irritants related to labour, transport permits etc.

Besides, the government has facilitated the payment of salary and wages totalling Rs 524 crore for March 2020 to the employees of nearly 36,000 private industrial units in the state even as the lockdown has been extended till May 3.

“The government has given permits to 139 hand sanitiser units, while 412 medical equipment units are currently functional,” UP additional chief secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi told the media here this evening.

At present, 910 flour mills, 419 oil mills and 367 dal mills are operational in UP so that there is no shortage of food items.

“The CM has instructed for ensuring the adequate supply of N95 masks and other personal protection equipment (PPE) kits for the doctors and other frontline health staff across the state,” he informed.

The government has initiated steps to streamline the process of wheat procurement in UP, which started on Wednesday with the state targetting a net procurement of 5.5 million tonnes (MT) of wheat in the current rabi marketing season.

Currently, UP has 869 live coronavirus positive cases, of the total 969 identified so far with the remaining getting discharged after treatment. Five districts viz. Hathras, Maharajganj, Pilibhit, Bareilly and Prayagraj (Allahabad) have now been declared free of coronavirus.