VIJAYAWADA: Coming to the rescue of the poor, who have lost their livelihood due to the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of coronavirus, the State government on Saturday distributed Rs 1,000 each to over 77.04 lakh families.
According to officials, the distribution of the financial assistance started at 7 am and by 6 pm, about 57.91 per cent of rice card holders got the amount.
The government has earlier announced to provide ration and financial assistance of Rs 1,000 to the poor, who have lost the employment because of the lockdown.
Officials said about 2,39,159 volunteers participated in the distribution of the financial assistance to the poor through 15,001 secretariats across the State.
To mitigate the problems of the poor following the lockdown, the Chief Minister ordered distribution of the financial assistance to 1.33 crore rice cardholders and the government has earmarked Rs 1,300 crore for the same.
In Vijayawada, volunteers have distributed Rs 1,000 each to 1,74,082 white ration card holders in Vijayawada, Vijayawada Municipal Commissioner (VMC) commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh said in a statement released on Saturday.
“We welcome the government for helping us in the times of lockdown,” said Y Lakshmi, a beneficiary. In order to follow social distancing, the volunteers uploaded photos of the beneficiaries with their Aadhaar and ration cards on an mobile application designed for the purpose.
“Instead of taking beneficiaries’ fingerprints, we uploaded their photos this time,” said Priyadarshini, a volunteer.
Additional commissioner (General) A Mohanarao said beneficiaries of every wards were identified and mapped. “According to the guidelines of the state government, the volunteers have photographed and geo-tagged the beneficiaries,” he said.