RAJSHAHI, May 11, 2020 (BSS) – Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has, so far, provided food support to more than 1.07 lakh jobless and other less-incoming families aimed at protecting them from starvation being caused by the present adverse impact of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
With initiative and support of the city’s 45,000 affluent families, the city corporation distributed 223 tonnes of rice, 41 tonnes of pulse and 52 tonnes of potato among the families in need, said city Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton.
Apart from, the city corporation dispensed 513 tonnes of rice among 62,500 hand-to-mouth families from the government allocation in all 30 wards of the city equally as part of the government’s instant humanitarian support to cope with the present troubled situation caused by Covid-19 pandemic, he added.
Besides, Taka 60 lakh has been provided to 4,000 worst affected families with assistance of Brac.
Aimed at ensuring protein support, each of 600 mothers was given Taka 500 while each of 480 babies were given 500 grams of powder milk in all 30 wards as the gift of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
With his personal initiative, Mayor Liton has been distributing iftar packets and cooked foods among the distressed people for the last couple of weeks in line with the present non-stop efforts of reaching foodstuffs to all the worst affected people.
As part of the government’s relentless efforts of ensuring food support to all the helpless families, RCC has been providing relief support to 11,100 more jobless and other less-incoming households since Friday last.
The targeted families are being given ten kilograms of rice, one kilogram of pulse, two kilograms of potato and one kilogram of pumpkin each.
“We are distributing the relief materials among the affected families to tackle the present troubled situation,” Mayor Liton said, adding the assistance will continue until the troubled situation is ended.
In addition to the food and financial support, the city corporation has been conducting various awareness programmes among the public in general to fight against the coronavirus spread.
As part of the programmes, 20,000 face masks, 1,000 liter of sanitizer and 1.5 lakh leaflets were distributed among a cross-section of people in order to create awareness among them.
The city corporation has arranged hand-washing events at 27 points besides imparting training to 300 health workers to face any emergency situation. The city’s major streets and markets were brought under disinfectant spraying through five water tankers.
All the health and conservancy workers were given personal protective gears like masks, hand gloves and sanitizers. Cleanliness programmes have been intensified. Activities of the Covid-19 testing laboratory at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital are being monitored.
Mayor Liton mentioned the ongoing preventive and precautionary measures have an important role in terms of keeping the city areas free from any reported case for Covid-19.