Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has set up a coronavirus relief fund and appealed to the residents of the city to contribute to it.

In a letter addressed to the residents, mayor Asha Lakra informed that the civic body was still awaiting government help and was working with limited resources to fight the pandemic.

Urging residents to donate money to the relief fund, the letter mentions an account number 919010075874476 with IFSC code of the bank branch (UTIB0001083).

However, the appeal for donation had no mention about income tax exemption on the donated amount that would have acted as an incentive and attracted more money.

“We couldn’t apply to the income tax authorities seeking tax exemption for donation for the relief fund,” deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya said.

On whether they were hopeful of financial support from the state government, Vijayvargiya said: “We have approached the state government and have been assured of help. As of now, both me and the mayor have offered Rs 1 crore each to meet the expenditure incurred on measures to stem the spread of coronavirus,” Vijayvargiya said.

He said the amount they offered was meant for development work such as the construction of roads and drains.

Some of the ward councillors are also facing problems in helping the poor.

“Some of us were given rice for distribution among the poor and the needy, but that got exhausted soon,” said Arun Kumar Jha, councillor of ward 26.

Jha said ward councillors were given 3-5 quintals of rice each and asked to distribute 10kg of rice to every needy family that approached them.

“I got three quintals of rice and I could distribute it among 30 families only. But there are many more families asking for rice,” he said.

On whether he had received Rs 10,000 that the state government had promised to allot to each of the councillors for the purpose, Jha said: “Let alone me, none of the five other ward commissioners I met yesterday (Wednesday) has got it,” Jha said.