To ensure dignity and respect for the beneficiaries who get the relief materials from the government, Tiruvallur collector Mageswari Ravikumar has adopted a method where people can choose from various essential commodities exhibited on different tables instead of it being provided to them in a bag.
This initiative was taken up by the collector after Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam forwarded a video showing this method being adopted in Manipur to distribute the relief materials.
In the initial phase, the process, termed as Relief at People’s Choice, was adopted in Hussain Nagar, Mappedu where relief was distributed to 182 Irular families.
“Different grocery items like rice, oil, pulses and other essential commodities will be placed on different tables. The beneficiary can walk and pick whatever they want. As they walk to each table, the official will welcome them with a smile and remain standing with folded hands till they move away after picking the product. This will definitely ensure personal distancing,” said the collector.
Many times when officials distribute the relief, people hesitate to take it as photographs are taken and the beneficiaries feel like taking alms. “But this new method will avoid embarrassment to the beneficiaries. It will make them feel like taking products from a super market. We have started with the Irular community now and will be adopting the same at other places too,” said a senior official.
Similarly, nutritious food, vegetable kits, masks and hand wash were provided to 155 health workers in Tiruvallur Government General Hospital in the same manner. “The medical staff have been providing great service to the society and we wanted to provide them with essential commodities so that they don’t have to struggle to buy them,” the official added.
Till date around 1.50 lakh have been provided with grocery and close to 2 lakh people have been provided food in Tiruvallur district.
