The State government on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that it had sanctioned ₹350.29 crore for COVID-19 containment activities, including for procurement of disinfectants, use of drones to spray them and he provision of food, shelter and personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline workers.
“In addition, frontline departments like the Health and Police Departments have been sanctioned funds to the tune of ₹149.79 crore and ₹6.5 crore for the purchase of medical equipment and protective gear, respectively,” it told the court in response to a public interest litigation petition.
Providing a break-up, the government said that initially, ₹60 crore was sanctioned from the State Disaster Relief Fund on March 19. The money was allocated to the Health, Transport, Rural Development, Municipal Administration and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Departments towards preparedness/preventive measures. Another ₹97 crore was released to all Collectors and the Police Department on March 24 for providing food, clothing, shelter and medical care to those who had been quarantined after testing positive for COVID-19. The funds were also supposed to be used for screening, contact tracing and purchasing PPE, it said.
On April 8, ₹42.84 crore was sanctioned, of which ₹15.84 crore was given to town panchayats to curtail the spread of the pandemic and ₹22 crore to the Municipal Administration Department for purchasing disinfectants, disposable masks, gloves and other PPE. On April 13, ₹20 crore was allotted to the Greater Chennai Corporation.
Further, the Rural Development Department was given ₹20 crore to purchase PPE for sanitary workers in 12,525 village panchayats. The Director-General of Police/Director of Fire and Rescue Services were provided with ₹15.92 crore for buying gum boots, helmets and other equipment for their personnel.
The government said the Director of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy in Chennai was sanctioned ₹5 crore on May 2 for the preparation and distribution of immunity-boosting concoctions for frontline workers. The court was also told that government had ordered to provide zinc and multivitamin tablets to those workers.
