Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced free cooked meals for the poor and destitute in rural areas and financial assistance for street vendors in urban areas as livelihood support in the wake of the lockdown to keep the Covid-19 at bay.
Naveen said: “Around 100 to 200 poor people will be given cooked food in each panchayat on a daily basis. The distribution of cooked food will be done through self-help groups. People can take the food to their homes and eat. As many as 10 lakh poor and destitute people will be benefited from the scheme.”
Naveen also announced a financial assistance of Rs 3,000 each for the street vendors in 114 urban pockets. “It will benefit 65,000 registered street vendors in the state,” he said.
On Friday, Naveen had announced Rs 22,000 crore financial packages for poor and destitute. The government had also announced to provide free cooked meals, dry foods for poor of urban pockets.
Those people, particularly the migrant labourers, who are returning from other states have been asked to stay in panchayat offices in rural areas by villagers and they are allowed to enter to the village after completion of 14 days of quarantine, officials said. Naveen’s announcement for cooked meals for the poor at panchayat level will help the cause of those migrant workers.
On Saturday, Odisha government spokesperson on Covid-19, Subroto Bagchi said: “The third corona positive patient, a bank employee, has come in contact with 112 people. Attempt is being made to reach to these 112 people. So far the number of coronavirus positive case is three in Odisha.”
People in the state are adhering to the principle of lockdown. However, the state police during the past 24 hours have registered 324 cases for violation of Covid-19 guidelines. “Three hundred and eight cases are registered for violation of lockdown, 15 cases for violation of home quarantine and another cases for other issue,” a police officer said.
The CPM in Odisha has urged the state government to make arrangements through the Odisha State Beverage Corporation to produce alcohol based hand sanitisers by using a portion of the wine producing units of the state. “Likewise, services of SHGs and jail prisoners may be entrusted to stitch medicated masks to meet the requirement of the state,” the party said in a memorandum to chief minister.
Demanding one time loan waiver for farmers, a bail out package for the cattle farmers will be announced and central assistance may be demanded for the same.
All the migrant workers returning to Odisha from different states must be tested, quarantined and should not be allowed to mix with others for 14 days.
“A special package for all the workers of unorganised sector should be announced. Small and medium entrepreneurs, financial organisations of the state facing loss because of lockdown should be financially assisted with a condition not to retrench their workmen and ensure to pay the wages for coming three months. Low interest rate loan facility should be announced.
It also demanded that fitness and other related tax amount of auto rickshaw, taxis and private transport to be relaxed. Electricity and water bill payment of all the consumers, including small and medium units rural consumers should be deferred and rebate should be allowed for delayed payment.