Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman continued her press conference for the second day in a row to explain how the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be distributed to the people of India.
The second press conference focused on migrant workers, small farmers, street vendors, the finance minister announced. "Three steps for migrant workers, one related to street vendors, one for housing, one for tribal employment, and two related to small farmers is the highlight of this press briefing," Nirmala Sitharaman said.
"Government has permitted state governments to utilise SDRF for setting up shelter for migrants&providing them food&water etc...We are conscious, we are attending to the migrants and giving them in various different ways," says Sitharaman.
Sitharaman said that Government of India has permitted State Governments to utilise State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for setting up shelter for migrants and providing them food and water etc.
And for this, Centre has also released Rs 11,000 crore of its contribution in advance to all States on 3rd April in order to augment funds in their SDRF, she added.
In addition to this, keeping in mind the hygiene, these shetler homes are providing three meals a day for the residents of Shelters for Urban Homeless during the lockdown w.e.f March 28, 2020.
Morevover, 12,000 SHGs have produced 3 crore masks and 1.20 lakh litres of sanitizers. This gave additional employment opportunity to the urban poor.
Disbursal of Revolving Fund (RF) to Self Help Groups was on-boarded on PAISA Portal in April 2020 on a pilot basis in Gujarat and is now being rolled out across all the states in May 2020.
Additionally, 7,200 new Self Help Groups of urban poor have been formed during the period starting 15th March, 2020.
