NEW DELHI: Even the well-oiled machinery of the ruling BJP has been sweating to reach out to the homeless, hungry and the wave of poor marching back to their villages.
Party workers across the country who set up kitchens to serve meals to the poor are apparently struggling to serve the people during lockdown 3.0 as against the beginning of the nationwide shutdown.
The exodus of the migrants during the third phase of lockdown is being also attributed to the reason that a large section of the social service providers, who had reached out to the weaker sections in the initial days of the shutdown, have found their financial resources shrinking fast.
“Within the first few days of the lockdown in March, we were able to set up facilities to cook meals and were soon serving 2,000 people with two meal packets. By the time we entered the second phase, people extending financial support began expressing inabilities and the coverage of people came down by half. Since the third extension of the lockdown, we’re barely serving 10 per cent of the initial number,” said a BJP worker.
“Besides the BJP, other political workers and NGOs had set up units across the country to serve the poor. In lockdown phase 3, the financial squeeze has affected the coverage of the poor with the cooked meals,” said a senior party functionary.
BJP leaders from some states said continuation of the lockdown would force many party workers to pack up their food kitchens for the poor as the voluntary donations have mostly disappeared.