About 10 Non-Governmental Organisations in the city distributed food to the needy, homeless, and field workers on Wednesday as the city was under lock down as a precautionary measure against spread of COVID-19.
The food was distributed by the volunteers and they said they had taken all the precautionary measures.
Coimbatore District Collector K. Rajamani said the Government has said that there should be complete lockdown but facilities should be made for free flow of essential commodities. People who were employed in the unorganised sector, migrant workers who are stranded here and the needy should get food and if needed kitchens can be set up for mass cooking.
Based on this, three kitchens were started by the District Administration on Wednesday.
“We are permitting NGOs to distribute food only based on need. Even at the mass kitchens, food is cooked and distributed only based on need. It was day one on Wednesday and the situation will be reviewed regularly,” he said.
Coimbatore Corporation officials said the civic body had arranged for food for its workers from the eight Amma Unavagam canteens. The responsibility for transport of food from the canteens to places where the workers worked rested with the zonal assistant commissioners. The Corporation was taking care of all its conservancy workers during this extraordinary situation, they said.
(With inputs from Karthik Madhavan)
