Expedite Rs 1,000 Financial Aid To Ration Card- Holding Families: Bihar CM Nitish To Officials

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday ordered officials to expedite financial support to the weaker section in the state amid lockdown to fight coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a meeting convened to review the steps and measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Bihar, Kumar said the process of providing financial assistance of Rs 1,000 to every ration card-holding family should be expedited by completing the Aadhaar seeding exercise.

"Payment for providing the amount (Rs 1,000 to each ration card-holding family) must be expedited in order to provide the benefit to all the remaining beneficiaries at the earliest," the he added.

Also Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: COVID-19 Cases Count Crosses 2,500 In India; 62 Deaths So Far- All You Need To Know

Bihar government had on Thursday launched a drive to extend the financial aid through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system and transferred a sum of Rs 184.08 crore on the inaugural day of the scheme into the bank accounts of about 18.40 lakh people.

29 Positive Coronavirus Cases Reported In Bihar

Bihar, so far, witnessed 29 coronavirus positive cases and one death. A 38-year-old man whose test results positive died due to kidney failure on March 22. He had a history of travelling to Qatar and was admitted to AIIMS, Patna. After first death  in Bihar, the state saw a sudden rise of the coronavirus positive cases.

Meanwhile, testing of samples is likely to pick up in the state with hordes of migrant workers having poured in from different parts of the country, notwithstanding assurances by the Nitish Kumar government that it would ensure they were looked after wherever they happened to be.

However, state health minister Mangal Pandey on Friday said that his government took enough precautionary measures to deal with the situation. Local authorities turned a school in every panchayat intoan isolation-ward for patients.

(With PTI inputs)