UP CM Yogi Adityanath announces ₹10 lakh aid for kin of journalists who died of COVID-19

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday announced health insurance for journalists for COVID-19 treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh financial assistance to the families of media persons who succumb to the virus.

CM Adityanath was speaking after the inauguration of a newly constructed information department building named ‘Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya Suchna Parisar.’ He said the new building would be equipped with modern communication tools, especially for the digital platform. Stating that discussion was an important tool in a democracy to find solutions to major problems, the CM said that media is a strong medium for the same.

Yogi Adityanath further asked officials to work on “wide publicity of state welfare schemes” and act as a link between people and the government. The CM also urged them to promote local produce, especially under the ‘one district, one product’ scheme. He said the scheme can become the anchor for the AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan.

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Govt efforts to curb encephalitis

The Chief Minister further stated that efforts to control the spread of encephalitis in eastern Uttar Pradesh have been a success. Ever since the first death was reported in UP due to the disease in 1977, it had spread to 38 districts by 1998.

Yogi said, after the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched in 2014, a large number of toilets were constructed in the Gorakhpur region, bringing down the number of deaths caused by encephalitis drastically. While 641 deaths had taken place at BRD Medical College in 2014, only seven deaths have occurred in 2020 so far due to the disease.

CM Adityanath also said that the efforts to control encephalitis helped greatly in battling the Covid-19 pandemic. He pointed out that the Coronavirus positivity rate is at its lowest and the recovery rate was maximum in Uttar Pradesh. The state reported has reported 3,78,533 COVID-19 cases till date. A total of 4,519 fresh coronavirus cases were reported in the state in the past 24 hours. While 3,13,686 patients have so far been discharged, the number of active cases in the state stands at 59,397. The death toll due to the infection has risen to 5,450.

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