RAJSHAHI, April 30, 2020 (BSS) – Another 4,264 members of 14 more professional organizations were given 20,000 kilograms of rice to make them mentally capable to mitigate the present hardship being caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The daily wage earning and other hand-to-mouth members, who have been affected badly by the pandemic, were given ten kilograms of rice each Wednesday afternoon.
Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) provided the foodstuff as the gift of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and as a part of the government’s instant humanitarian support to relieve the livelihood related hardship.
City Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton formally opened the distribution programme at city bhaban premises as chief guest saying such type of humanitarian assistance will continue to cope with the troubled situation until its end.
Panel Mayor Shariful Islam Babu, Ward Councilor Towhidul Haque Suman, Chief Executive Officer Dr Sharif Uddin and Secretary Abu Hayat Rahmatullah were present on the occasion.
Earlier on Tuesday, another 4,908 members of 19 professional bodies were given 40,000 kilograms of rice to lessen their livelihood related hardship.
Mayor Liton also said the present government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working relentlessly to ensure food security of the jobless people amidst the present troubled time.
He said there is no crisis of food as the government has sufficient stock and urged the recipient not to be panicked in this regard.
As part of the government step, RCC has distributed rice to 21,000 jobless and other less-income families in its 30 wards to minimize their hardship caused by the novel coronavirus recently.
The city corporation has reached 10 kilograms of rice at the doorstep of each of the beneficiary families simultaneously as a gift of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Liton reiterated that the government had allocated 210 tonnes of rice for distribution among the targeted poor families to cope with the present troubled situation.
“We have also dispensed another 123 tonnes of rice among 12,300 hand-to-mouth families in the city from the government allocation earlier,” he said, adding the city corporation has provided foodstuffs to around 45,000 daily wage-earning and other hand-to mouth families in two phases.
In the first phase, each of 20,000 families was given ten kilograms of rice and one kilogram of pulse while each of another 25,000 households was given five kilograms of rice, two kilograms of potato and one kilogram of pulse through creating a stock of 100 tonnes of rice and 20 tonnes of pulse from the city’s affluent persons for distribution.
The corporation also distributed 60 tonnes of rice among 200 destitute people in each of the 30 wards after receiving those from the government.