The Assam government on Monday transferred ₹2,000 each to the accounts of 86,000 people from the State stranded across India due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
These 86,000 people are among the 99,758 people found eligible for cash relief after the government processed 4,29,851 calls for help and 2,28,126 applicants who had filled up an e-form.
“Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal took the decision to provide financial assistance to needy people stranded outside, during a review meeting on Sunday. Those who received the payment today will get another instalment before the lockdown ends,” Assam’s Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The remaining 13,758 people would get the first instalment within the next few days, he said without specifying the amount for the second instalment.
$1,000 for those abroad
The Assam government had earlier remitted $1,000 each to 34 Assamese people stranded abroad. They will be given another $1,000 each on April 25.
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According to data available with the State government, most people from Assam working outside are in southern India. Karnataka tops the list with 64,000 people, Kerala with 34,000, Tamil Nadu with 33,000 and Telangana with 16,000.
While 21,000 people work in Maharashtra, 22,778 are scattered across Gujarat, Goa, West Bengal, Haryana and New Delhi.
The Assam government has estimated that about 15 lakh people will return to the State from COVID-19 hotspots across the country after the nationwide lockdown is lifted. A majority of them are from central Assam’s Nagaon district.
18 discharged
Mr. Sarma said 18 of the 34 persons who had tested positive for COVID-19 had been discharged after recovery. Of the total positive cases, a 65-year-old man died on April 10.
Four patients elsewhere in the northeast — two from Manipur and one each from Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura — have also recovered.
