More on Covid-19

NEW DELHI: The Centre has written to chief secretaries and NGOs to ensure that elderly widows, divyangs, senior citizens and the poor do not go hungry or shelterless in any district of the country.Chief secretaries have been told that the Food Corporation of India ( FCI ) is providing foodgrains to all charitable, non-government organisations engaged in relief operations at Rs 21 per kg for wheat and Rs 22 for rice.“I have written to chief secretaries and district collectors of all states and Union Territories to partner and associate with NGOs of their states and districts to ensure that all people, specially migrants, poor farmers, building and construction workers, aged widows, divyangs and senior citizens and others do not suffer from want of food or shelter and no one in the country remains hungry,” Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.Kant cited the letter of the consumer affairs ministry to FCI which instructed FCI to ensure that foodgrains are supplied to charitable entities, NGOs and others running relief camps for migrant labourers and other vulnerable groups at the uniform rate of Rs 21 per kg of wheat and Rs 22 per kg of rice. The ministry has also told FCI that there would be no upper limit for allocation of foodgrains to such organisations from any FCI depot.“Accordingly, you are requested to immediately contact your district collector/FCI depot manager for obtaining foodgrains at the above mentioned rates so as to ensure that no one in the country remains hungry,” Kant, who is heading one of the empowered groups set up by the government to deal with the impact of Covid-19 outbreak, said in his letter to NGOs and civil society organisations.The Niti Aayog CEO urged chief secretaries to instruct district magistrates to ensure that no poor person remains hungry or shelterless. Earlier this month, Kant had written to 92,000 NGOs registered on the Niti Aayog Darpan portal to partner with district authorities across the country to help in mitigating the problem of food and shelter and other support for migrant labourers and vulnerable groups who have borne the brunt of the devastating impact of the coronavirus outbreak.