RCC to distribute food grains among day labourers from tomorrow

Rajshahi City Corporation has decided to distribute food grains among 20,000 daily wage earners of the city to help them survive the ongoing 10-day shutdown to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

The city corporation raised a stock of 100 tonnes of rice and 20 tonnes of pulse from local donors for distribution that is likely to kick off tomorrow.

"I raised the stocks with help from the city's affluent persons," Rajshahi Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton said while talking to The Daily Star.

Each of the 20,000 day labourers who can't find work during the shutdown would get five kg of rice and one kg pulse, he said.

"We will invite more well-off people to come forward," he said this afternoon.

The mayor would sit with the city corporation officials and ward councillors at the corporation conference room tonight to decide on strategies for the distribution, he said.

Apart from the private initiative, the corporation received 60 tonnes of rice from the government for distributing among 200 destitute people at each of the 30 wards.

Each of the destitute persons would get 10 kg of rice under the relief distribution activities.

Meanwhile, the district relief and disaster management committee has decided to distribute 344 tonnes of rice in 14 municipalities and 9 upazilas of the district. The committee will also distribute Tk 50,000 among each of the municipalities and upazilas.

The decisions were taken after the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief allocated Tk 10 lakh and 100 tonnes of rice for Rajshahi and asked the district administration to distribute it among poor people, said Aminul Haque, the district relief and rehabilitation officer.

The government initiative would cover around 34,000 families in the district, he said.