Relief package for coronavirus lockdown may not reach all poor: Experts

The Centre on Thursday announced a slew of measures to provide relief to poor and vulnerable sections of the population during the Covid-19 crisis, but the efficacy of many of these will depend on a robust last-mile delivery mechanism, which has been badly affected right from the start of the 21-day lockdown.

Experts said most of the announcements pertain to beneficiaries of existing schemes. Hence, anyone who is not part of the current set of programmes may not be able to access the relief measures.

They also pointed out that in some cases, such as raising the MGNREGA wages by Rs 20