BENGALURU: The Karnataka BJP unit is on a soft outreach to families which have lost members to the Covid-19 pandemic in the state. The party is forming teams, who along with local BJP MLAs and MPs, will visit homes of the deceased, and console them personally.
The teams will also help the family. The party unit recently decided to form a committee for this purpose, comprising senior ministers, including Revenue Minister R Ashoka, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, Cooperative Minister ST Somashekar, Urban Development Minister Byrathi Basavaraj and Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar.
Ashoka saidthat they started a pilot in his constituency in Padmanabha Nagar, where he and other ministers visited a JDS worker who had died of Covid recently. “We will visit houses of all the deceased, cutting across parties. We see them as individuals and not as political party members,’’ he said. This is an attempt to instil confidence in families, and ensure that there is someone to take care of them, he added.
Ashoka said that their initiative to immerse the ashes of the deceased in Srirangapatna had got a lot of appreciation. “We are doing this as family, and want to tell them that we are with them in their hour of crisis. We are also giving Rs 1 lakh from the local MLA or donors’ fund to family members of the deceased. This is not the scheme announced for BPL cardholders, it is from the party,” he said. The team has visited Padmanabhanagar, and in the next 15 days, will visit houses in Byatarayanapura and KR Puram constituencies.