Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 14 came out with a string of measures for the migrant labourers, who have become the face of the humanitarian and economic crisis brought by the coronavirus outbreak, as she for the second day shared the details of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
All migrant workers will be provided free food grains for the next two months, the minister said as she announced the first of the three measures for them.
"For non-(PDS) cardholders, they shall be given 5kg wheat/rice per person and 1 kg chana per family/month for two months. Eight crore migrants will benefit from this and Rs 3500 crore to be spent on this," the finance minister said, adding states would be the implementing agencies for the programme.
The second step will be One Nation One Ration Card.
"In order to benefit migrants, a portal for public ration cards will be brought in. This can be used across states. 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states covering 83 percent of PDS population will be covered by national portability by August 2020," she said.
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The third measure aims to grant affordable rental accommodation to these workers and urban poor under the PM Awas Yojana.
"We are incentivising manufacturing and industries to build affordable housing units on their properties and looking to convert vacant buildings in metro cities for housing," Sitharaman said.
"This will be done via PPP mode through concessionaire agreements, which will constitute small rents and then make up, similar to road toll. Detailed guidelines will come from ministry soon."
Highlighting the steps taken to help migrant workers, Sitharaman said the Centre had permitted states to utilise state disaster response funds for setting up shelters and providing food and water to them.
"Rs 11,000 crores were sent through the State Disaster Response Fund with which the states take care of the migrants. Using that money, many of the migrants have been attended to. We are conscious, we are attending to the migrants and giving them in various different ways," Sitharaman said.
On May 13, the PM CARES fund allocated Rs 1,000 crore for migrant labourers.
For strengthening the measures taken for the welfare of the migrants and the poor, states and UTs will be given a lump sum assistance of Rs 1,000 crore from the fund, a statement said.
The amount would be provided to state governments and UTs for district collectors or municipal commissioners for accommodation, food, medical treatment and transportation to the migrants, the statement explained.
The minister had on May 13 announced the package, called Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, involving 15 measures for various sectors.
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