Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said Rs 5,000 will be transferred to the accounts of auto, taxi, e-rickshaw, RTV and Gramin Sewa drivers who have been hit by the 21-day lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak.
Arvind Kejriwal said he has come up with this scheme since he was getting a large number of requests from auto, taxi and RTV drivers that even they have been hit hard by COVID-19 and are almost on the verge of dying in hunger.
“Rs 5,000 each will be transferred into the accounts of auto, taxi, e-rickshaw, RTV and Gramin Sewa drivers and all those plying public service vehicles. However, it might take between a week to 10 days to implement the scheme,”
Kejriwal said.
"This transfer might take time as the Delhi government is working on a strategy to collect bank account details of all such people. The scheme requires a lot of panning for a successful execution", Kejriwal added.
The Chief Minister also gave details of current status of COVID-19 patients in the national capital. He said, "There are 219 coronavirus positive cases in Delhi as of today (5pm), out which, 108 are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Nizamuddin."
He also said 2 New cases of deaths have been reported on Thursday, which were also of those who were evacuated from Markaz in Nizamuddin.
Kejriwal furhter added that currently, 2,943 people are quarantined in Delhi, while 21,307 have been asked to be in self-quarantine at their homes, Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal says "out of 2943 cases of quarantine, 1133 are those with foreign travel history and 1,810 are those who were evacuated from Markaz Nizamuddin."
“A total of 2,346 people were evacuated from Markaz and out of these, as I said, 1,810 are under quarantine and 536 are in hospital. Of these 536, tests are underway and it is likely that in the next 2-3 days the test results could lead to a spike in the number of total positive cases in Delhi,” he added.
Delhi, till today, has put 21,327 people under self-quarantine at their homes.
Kejriwal also said that the government has expanded its operation to distribute free lunch and dinner to the poor and vulnerable. As of Wednesday, "6,00,208 people had lunch at various centres and 5,95 lakh plus had free dinner through the facilities at various centres in Delhi.
"And from today we have made arrangements for at least 10 lakh people. Ten lakh people can have food at our relief centres,” he said.
First Published: Apr 2, 2020 6:53 PM IST
