Covid Fund Providing Succour in Times of Corona Pandemic
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Shimla, April 29 – State government has taken various necessary measures to respond to immediate needs of frontline workers, organizations and general public in the time of Corona pandemic. Government has taken various steps like providing Personal Protection Equipment kits to Health Workers and other frontline officials as well as to ensure smooth supply of all other essential commodities like food items and medicines etc.
State government has also created HP SDMA Covid-19 State Disaster Response Fund for facilitating voluntary contributions to fight COVID-19 pandemic. This fund is providing succour in the time of crises. People of the State are contributing generously towards Disaster Response Fund. The contributors include the organizations, industrialists, businessmen, employees and individuals. Till April 26, 2021, contributions of Rs. 85,30,54,095 have been received in the Covid-19 State Disaster Response fund, out of which Rs.66,28,37,282 has been released to various districts and departments during this period.
For frontline workers of different departments engaged in fight against Covid-19, Personal Protection Equipment Kits were purchased. Total 20.90 crore was released to different departments and Deputy Commissioners for the purchase of PPE kits and other safety equipments. This include Rs. 12 crore to Health Department, 5.25 crore to Deputy Commissioners, rupees. two crore to HP Police Department, rupees one crore to Municipal Corporation Shimla, Rs. 40 lakh to HP Home Guard and Civil Defence, Rs. 20 lakh to Animal Husbandry Department and rupees five lakh to Chief Fire Officer, HP was given.
For providing incentive to ASHA workers during Corona period Rs. 9,55,68,000 were given to National Health Mission, HP and Rs. 6,64,30,000 were provided to Health Department for the procurement of Make Shift Hospital at Mandi. Thousands of Himachali residents were stranded in Delhi and Chandigarh for which SDMA gave Rs. 10 lakh to Himachal Bhawan Chandigarh and rupees five lakh to Himachal Bhawan Delhi for making lodging and other arrangements for these persons.
Stranded persons of Himachal Pradesh from different parts of the country were brought back home through buses, trains and flights for which SDMA released Rs. 13,08,22,425 to different government departments, agencies and individuals. These includes, Rs. 8.05 crore to Himachal Road Transport Corporation, Rs. 4,76,67,280 to different zones of Indian Railways, Rs. 7,71,719 to Commissioner, Corporation of Chennai for transportation through trains, 1,89,000 to a bus operator of Dehradun for transportation of stranded persons from North States, Rs. 49,940 to Ambassador Tours Shimla for transportation of stranded persons by air and Rs. 34,100 as ticket fare of 31 persons from Thiruvanthapuram to Una.
For the purpose of deployment of Home Guards, Rs. 10,88,83,398 were given to Director General of Police, Rs. 23,40,000 to DC Chamba, Rs. 16,50,000 to DC Kinnaur and Rs. 10,27,000 to DC Kullu. For the purchase of sanitizer etc., Rs. 1,45,04,185 were given to State Election Commission, Rs. 14 lakh to Secretariat Administration Department and Rs. 20 lakh to Municipal Corporation, Dharamshala.
Besides this, bus service was provided to the people for quarantine centers and back homes after completion of quarantine period. For this purpose, Rs. 50 lakh was given to Deputy Commissioner Chamba. Rs. five crore was given to HRTC for sanitization of buses and bus stands of the State and Rs. five lakh to Ayurveda Department for the purchase of immunity booster.
Government is adapting and adopting financial management policies with strict internal controls to ensure transparency and accountability. The success of a government’s COVID-19 control strategy is getting reflected in public trust and broad acceptance of response measures.
State Disaster Management Authority is maintaining high level of transparency in the transactions of the funds which can be seen at a single click at www.hpsdma@nic.in as a result of which people are contributing generously towards Covid fund.
