Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced that the mobile phones of all those who have been asked to home quarantine themselves will be tracked by the Delhi Police to keep a check on their movement.
Several other countries have used this technology to contain the spread of COVID-19 , and that tracking mobile phones was one such way to ensure people abide by quarantine norms, he said.
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“The government has given 14,345 phone numbers to the Delhi Police on Wednesday to track them, in addition to 11,084 numbers it had shared on Tuesday. Strict action would be taken against those not adhering to the government’s order on home quarantine,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
Making the announcement during his daily digital briefing, the Chief Minister reiterated that there has not been any community transmission of COVID-19 in Delhi.
He added that for those persons who do not have ration cards, the Delhi government said it was a challenge to distribute ration to them but it had has created a system for roughly 10 lakh people who do not have ration cards.
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“I want to request all those people to apply for a ration card on the Delhi government e-district website. You can take the help of MLAs and SDMs. You will not get a ration card but will get ration every month till COVID-19 persists,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
No salary cut
Appealing to employers to not cut salaries of their employees, Mr. Kejriwal said, “Today is April 1, and to release the salaries of the employees, the employers, and their accountants need to work through the offices. For this, the Delhi government is issuing two passes each to the employers for the next two days, so that they can release the payments online to their employees.”
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The Delhi government also announced that it has initiated the process of giving assistance of ₹5,000 to daily wage labourers associated with construction work during the lockdown.
“The money is being transferred directly to the account of these labourers. The Delhi government has released ₹5,000 assistance amount for 32,358 registered workers on March 31. A total amount of ₹16.18 crore has been given to the registered construction workers of Delhi,” the government said. It added that it will soon give the assistance amount to nearly 9,000 workers as well whose applications are still pending.