Nitish Kumar announces Rs 100 crore relief fund amid nationwide lockdown
PATNA: Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has announced a Rs 100 crore relief package to help the poor and daily wage labourers of the state. The state government has also decided to turn schools into shelter homes.
The government has assured it will provide food and temporary shelter for the needy. Bihar government has also announced Rs 100 crore from the CM Relief Fund for the migrants stranded in other states. Bihar has till now reported three confirmed cases of coronavirus and one death.
Several migrants, mostly from Bihar have been stranded across the country as all transport systems have been suspended due to the lockdown. Last week itself, four trains from the Mumbai-Pune region travelled back to Bihar filled with migrants trying to reach home.
Prashant Kishor praised his former party boss Nitish Kumar today for the Bihar government’s Rs 100-crore relief package for migrants, amending his tone overnight from “shame on you”.The poll strategist posted a tweet welcoming the Bihar government’s measures in the coronavirus fight “after all the public outcry”.
Yesterday, Mr Kishor had accused Nitish Kumar of abandoning “hundreds of poor people from Bihar” trapped in Delhi and other parts of the country amid the lockdown. “Hundreds of poor people of Bihar in Delhi and other places are locked down, trapped because of Nitish Kumarji.
When governments all over are helping their people, why is the Bihar government not (helping) these people (or) arranging some immediate relief? Shame on Nitish Kumar,” the strategist had tweeted. He was expelled from Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United in January for being openly critical of the Chief Minister’s stand on the controversial citizenship law.
“After all the public outcry, GoB (Bihar government) has announced new measures to help daily wage workers and poor people stranded across India due to the #lockdown.
This includes additional fund of 100Cr from the Chief Minister’s relief fund. Thank you all for adding your voice to the cause,” Prashant Kishor tweeted, along with a folded hands emoji for Nitish Kumar, his political mentor-turned-adversary.
Apart from a Rs 100 crore for migrant workers stuck in other states as well as those returning to Bihar, Nitish Kumar declared that schools would be converted to shelter homes and food would be provided to the poorest in these shelters.
Former Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Kishor criticised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for abandoning poor people from Bihar stuck in Delhi and other states during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Kishor earlier today criticised Modi saying that the quarantine period could have been much shorter if he had taken steps earlier on. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a 21-day national lockdown, migrant workers rushed to get back to their home states, with heart-breaking tales emerging.
Bihar has three coronavirus cases including one death, according to the health ministry. Across India, the number of COVID-19 cases has climbed to 649, including 593 active cases and 42 people who have been cured or discharged from hospitals, the government says.
(Santosh Suman with Agency Inputs ).
