Coronavirus Outbreak: Jharkhand self-help groups preparing masks & sanitisers

Amid the battle against Coronavirus during the 21-day nationwide lockdown, the Central Coalfields Limited has produced six lakh tonnes of coal to meet the requirements of power plants while women of self-help groups are making masks, sanitisers and serving food to poor and needy across Jharkhand.

The state is on high alert though no positive Coronavirus case has been reported in Jharkhand so far. Under the Jharkhand Rural Development Department, the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society-sponsored Sakhi Mandals (self-help groups) are actively shouldering the responsibility with several women making masks, sanitisers, and running Daal-Bhat canteens, an official release of the department said.

The Sakhi Mandals in Palamau district made nearly 30,000 masks and 9,000 sanitizers, and women of such self-help groups made over 1.08 lakh masks and 27,000 bottles of sanitisers across the state, the release said. The CCL, a Coal India subsidiary headquartered here, said in a release on Sunday, The CCL has registered the highest one-day coal production with almost six lakh tonne production on March 28 amid the nationwide lockdown, ensuring continuous dispatch of coal to its linked power plants.

A report from Hazaribag, quoting district Deputy Commissioner Bhuvanesh Pratap Singh, said that special plastic jackets have been prepared for distribution among doctors and para-medical staff deputed at 140 quarantine centres and 18 isolation centres.

He said that 1,200 out of 14,000 people, who have reached Hazaribag district from across the country and abroad recently, were sent to various quarantine centres. Officials said that eight migrant labourers reached Haidernagar of Palamau district on foot from West Bengals Asansol and were sent to a quarantine centre.

The state government has nominated senior IAS officers as nodal officers, who are coordinating all possible relief and support to the people of the state stuck across the country, officials said.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who on Sunday inspected an isolation ward at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences here, addressed mukhias and other members of the three-tier panchayat system through video-conferencing in connection with the measures taken against COVID-19.

The Ranchi Rail Division, in a press note, said that about 300 poor people and labourers near Hatia and Ranchi railway stations were served food, provided by the IRCTC, on Sunday. Police personnel have also set up community kitchens at police stations across the state for serving food to the needy.

BJP state vice-president Pradip Verma said, party workers distributed foodgrains to the needy.