NO ONE IN DELHI WILL FACE STARVATION & FINANCIAL AID WILL BE GIVEN: KEJRIWAL
‘Government is happy to partner with Whatsapp to establish a dedicated Coronavirus helpline for residents’
NEW DELHI: In a digital press conference held on Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the Delhi government will provide a financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to each of the drivers of public transport vehicles including autos, taxis and e-rickshaws in the city rendered idle due to lockdown, he said the government is planning on how to do this since bank account numbers of drivers of public service vehicles like autos, taxis, e rickshaws, Gramin Sewa, RTVS and other such vehicles were unavailable.
He said he will ensure that no one in the city face starvation and the financial assistance will be provided to public service drivers in the next 7-10 days. Delhi government has already provided the assistance of Rs 5,000 each to over 35,000 construction workers in the city. According to government Delhi State Health Bulletin for containment of COVID-19, total number of positive cases has risen to 293. 141 fresh cases have been reported in the last 24 hours. It also added that a seventh doctor has tested positive.
Amid the Corona pandemic and the consequent
lockdown, the Delhi government provided lunch and dinner to around 6 lakh people on April 1, which includes lunch to 5,85,386 people and dinner to 5,79,162 people at around 1,423 centres. The Delhi government has been getting requests for food from various parts of the city and on April 1 the government received 1,367 calls or requests for food from different locations.
Nearly 2,500 schools and 250-night shelters have started distributing food to 500 people regularly, which raises the total number of distribution centres to nearly 2,800. Kejriwal said: “We are feeding 3.5 lakh-4
lakh people daily until now, and we will start feeding 10-12
lakh people from tomorrow. Upon further deliberations on this, we found out that people were crowding at the food centres. So we decided to create more centres.” To ensure that the government's free meal scheme is equitably accessible to the needy so that they do not have to walk for miles looking for food, the Delhi government has made the schools and night shelters as key food distribution points. From the day of the lockdown, the Delhi government had started with the distribution of foods at the existing 234-night shelters and 35 community halls.
The Delhi government has also doubled the pension under the widow pension scheme for 2.5 lakh beneficiaries, old-age pension scheme for 5 lakh beneficiaries, and disability pension scheme for 1 lakh beneficiaries. The beneficiaries have already received the pension for March.
Meanwhile, Delhi government on Thursday launched a dedicated helpline number on Whatsapp to ensure that citizens have an easy access to credible information around the COVID-19 crisis.
“The Delhi government is happy to partner with Whatsapp to establish a dedicated Coronavirus helpline for its residents to ensure that all your queries related to Coronavirus are answered with credible and accurate information.
We are doing everything we can to keep our citizens safe in these challenging times and urge everyone to stay indoors and ensure they rely only on verified channels of information,” Kejriwal said. This service has been built on the Whatsapp Business API, using Infobip India and will be available in English. The service will provide information on topics such as Coronavirus prevention and symptoms along with tips on containment, other service helpline numbers, applying for e-passes and general information on measures that the government is taking to tackle this crisis, it added.
Speaking on the Nizamuddin Markaz incident Kejriwal said two people who were evacuated from Nizamuddin Markaz died due to Coronavirus on Thursday. He said that of the 2,346 people evacuated from the Markaz, 108 have tested positive for Coronavirus.