The Assam government will release the full salary of its employees with a rider — help at least three financially weaker families around you.
This, the government said, would go a long way in making the poor smile during the upcoming Rongali Bihu festival robbed of its effervescence by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown.
Rongali or Bohag Bihu is celebrated for a week from mid-April but festivities carry on till mid-May.l
“About 5 lakh State government employees will be given full salary in these difficult times. They are advised to help needy families in their neighbourhood with their salaries,” Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday.
He asked the lower grade employees to help three families and their higher grade counterparts to help five. IAS officers and Chief Secretaries have been asked to assist 10 families in need. “The employees who do so will be featured on government websites and felicitated,” Mr Sarma said.
Aid for the stranded
The Minister said the government had so far credited ₹15.84 lakh in the bank accounts of 21 people from Assam stranded abroad. The amount credited as first instalment is half the $2,000 assured.
“We have also completed the tender process for building five prefabricated hospitals in the next two-and-a-half months. These hospitals for COVID-19 cases will be operational for five years,” he said.
Much of the expenditure on these hospitals would be borne out of the ₹80 crore generated from one day’s pay the State government employees had donated for the fight against the pandemic.
Mr. Sarma also said doctors and nurses of government hospitals treating COVID-19 patients would have to be quarantined after seven days’ work. They would be quarantined at a five-star hotel and the entire cost would be borne by the State government.
Besides, the Assam government would be providing ₹50 lakh as health insurance for 108 ambulance personnel and ₹1,000 would be added to their salaries for three months.
“Come out, get tested”
Mr. Sarma appealed to the elusive attendees of Delhi’s Nizamuddin congregation to come out and get tested. He said the list of such people from the State was getting longer.
“The Nizamuddin episode is an evolving story and we haven’t been able to finish it. We appeal to the Tablighi Jamaat district representatives for the last time to give us their lists (of the attendees). They have not cooperated as expected so far,” he said.
