Relief Distribution Actions to be taken for forming crowds

The government decided to take actions against individuals and organisations for distributing relief in public places forming public gatherings.

The instructions for taking actions against such acts that increases the possibilities of community transmission of the highly contiguous coronavirus was passed to the deputy commissioners, police and army on Monday, state minister for disaster management Md Enamur Rahaman said.

‘The individuals and organisations willing to give aid to the destitute will have to donate those to the district administration offices as they cannot distribute relief privately organising people into gatherings beside roads or in any open spaces,’ Enamur said.

Otherwise, he said, the civil administrations and army would take actions for creating public nuisance and putting public health at high risk.

The government using its own mechanism would distribute reliefs among the residents of localities to keep them at home, he said. 

The DCs of 64 districts till Monday sent lists of 24.89 lakh poor families for doo-to-door distribution, Enamur said.

‘We estimated on Monday that the number of people eligible for relief stood at over 1.20 crore belonging to 24.89 lakh families after each family was calculated to have an average of five members,’ the state minister said and added that the total number of estimated destitute people in the country was 1.50 crore.  

Health service experts had been demanding actions against individuals, politicians, businessmen and organisations those ‘for their self-advertisements and to gain media exposure’ distributed rice and hand sanitisers by organising public gatherings in Dhaka, Chattogram and other cities of the country.

News broadcast of different TV channels showed that Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon, Bangladesh Chhatra League central committee leaders, Awami League lawmaker for Dhaka 13 constituency Md Sadek Khan, DSCC chief executive officer Shah Mahmudul Hoque, Red Crescent Society and several other individuals, organisations and businesses distributed food and hand sanitisers among the urban poor allowing them to gather in groups.

They waited hours on end for such relief while many of them, as reported by different media, said that distribution of the relief stopped right after the photo shoots.

‘Various individuals and organisations were capitalising on the coronavirus epidemic,’ said professor Dr Iqbal Arsalan, president of Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad.

Shasthya Andolan joint convenor Farida Akhter said that those individuals or organisations were not distributing relief but were ‘creating opportunities for community transmission.’

‘Such trend must be stopped,’ she said.

Enamur Rahaman said that Sayeed Khokon had already been asked to stop distributing reliefs on roads.

In the city corporation and municipality areas, he said, mayors and councillors in coordination with local MPs and Awami League leaders would distribute relief going from door-to-door.

‘The city corporations and municipalities will get the relief from the DC offices,’ he said.

In the remaining areas, he said, the DCs and UNOs will distribute reliefs in coordination with local MPs, upazila and union parishad chairmen and Awami League leaders.

Enamur also said that he requested speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury on Sunday to request the members of the parliament to prepare lists of the needy people in their respective constituencies.

‘She vetted the proposal,’ he said, adding that the army was also asked to make a similar list.

‘Lists by the DCs and the lawmakers as well as the army will provide an opportunity to cross check,’ he said.

Enamur warned of drastic actions in case of any irregularities during distributions of funds.

He claimed that till Monday Tk 21 crore and 56,000 metric tonnes of rice were distributed among the DCs of 64 districts.

Local government and rural development minister Md Tajul Islam at a programme on Monday said that NGOs working in the slum areas for years would be included in the teams of the councillors for distributing relief.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net