Dayakar Rao informs that the State has been distributing 12 kg of free rice per person during the lockdown period

Telangana, which was the first to declare lockdown in the country, has been implementing it effectively, said Minister for Rural development Errabelli Dayakar Rao. He was enlisting the steps taken by the K Chandrashekhar Rao government in containing Covid-19 and at the same time initiating necessary steps to lessen the impact on rural areas, particularly the poor.

The Minister said this at a videoconference with Union Minister for Rural Development Narendra Tomar, who spoke with a few ministers of different State governments immediately after the Prime Minister concluded his address on the occasion of the National Panchayati Raj Day on Friday.

Dayakar Rao informed that the State has been distributing 12 kg of free rice per person and Rs 1,500 per family having a white ration card during the lockdown period. “In all, six lakh migrant workers were also issued 12 kg of rice and Rs 500 per head and Rs 1,500 per family as financial assistance.” He also said that the migrant workers were also accommodated in relief shelters.

Sanitation workers were given Rs 5,000 as an incentive, and 50 lakh masks made by



women self-help groups have been distributed. He reiterated the State government’s demand for applying MGNREGS to agriculture to create more employment opportunities for the rural people. He said the Chief Minister has already written to the Prime Minister in this regard and urged the Union Minister to take an early decision.

He said that that so far 10 lakh labourers have been provided work under the employment guarantee scheme in 12,548 villages covering 98% of the villages in the State. He added that at least 82 persons per village have been shown gainful employment. “We have been providing the workers with safe work environment by issuing them masks and sanitisers,” he said.

Enlisting other initiatives of the government, the Minister said the Telangana government was purchasing all the grain produced in the State from farmers by offering them Rs 1,800 as MSP through 4,000 procurement centres across the State. Secretary Panchayat Raj Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Commissioner Raghunandan Rao, Special Commissioner Saidulu and others participated in the video conference.