The Delhi government has rolled out a mammoth initiative to provide free meals to migrant workers and homeless people, who have been worst hit by the coronavirus lockdown. The plan involves providing food to around two lakh people on Friday, with the number to be scaled up to four lakh from Saturday.
So far, the government has been providing free meals twice a day at 224 night shelters, catering to around 20,000 people. However, this was proving to be grossly insufficient even as scenes of people crowding at the shelters to be able to get food was giving rise to concerns with regard to spread of coronavirus.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced that in addition to the night shelters, free meals will be given out at 325 schools in the capital, with each school catering to 500 people each.
“I saw videos on social media of people going hungry. There was a need to enhance the capacity of the initiative to provide food to the poor. Now, two lakh people will be given food daily. And from tomorrow, four lakh people will be provided meals,” he said.
The decision to scale up the initiative comes in the backdrop of chief ministers of Jharkhand and West Bengal making appeals for people from those states who are stranded elsewhere to be provided assistance.
“I want to give the assurance that whoever is within the limits of Delhi, whichever state they belong to--be it Jharkhand or Bihar or UP or West Bengal--they will be taken care of,” Kejriwal said.
With regard to the concern that the exercise of distributing free meals could lead to crowding and hence, to a possible spread of the coronavirus, the chief minister said instructions have been given that social distancing has to be maintained and the people who are involved in the initiative should wear masks and take adequate precautions.
“All MLAs have been asked to involve members of the society in this initiative. Social and religious organisations have come forward to help us in this task. I want to thank ISKCON, Radha Swami and the gurudwaras for coming forward to help us,” said Kejriwal.