Covid relief: Look at the bigger picture

The Rs 2,250 crore relief package announced by Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to help overcome the pangs of the Covid-related lockdown is welcome, but when broken down the amount which each individual receives will hardly be sufficient to make both ends meet. A bulk of nearly Rs 680 crore will be paid as a one-time cash relief which will be transferred directly to the recipient’s account. While construction workers, artistes and auto/cab drivers will receive Rs 3,000 each, street vendors and unorganised workers like barbers, tailors, ragpickers, mechanics and porters will be eligible for Rs 2,000. Such discrimination among the marginalised sections could have been avoided and the government should have maintained parity, however small the amount may be. Though a similar package was announced during the first wave of the pandemic, many are yet to receive the promised amount and government should ensure that the present one also does not end in a fiasco. The package also includes a financial aid of Rs 10,000 to fruit and vegetable farmers and extension of time for repayment of instalments on loans availed by agriculturists which will benefit over 4.45 lakh people.

The allotment of Rs 25 crore to Indira Canteens will help provide free food to around six lakh poor people, mostly those who have lost their source of livelihood. But the very purpose may be defeated if the authorities continue to insist on Aadhaar cards or mobile phone numbers as proof, as many homeless may have neither of them. Given the mobility issues during lockdown, the government should also consider distribution of food kits closer to the home of the beneficiaries, on the lines of Kerala. While in Kerala, the chief minister had given an assurance before clamping the lockdown that “nobody will go hungry” and had clearly enunciated the steps taken by the government, in Karnataka, the relief has come a bit too late.

The government has taken some ad-hoc measures to tide over the immediate crisis, but its eyes remain closed to the travails of the middle class. While current lockdown, which anyway is the result of the administration’s lack of preparedness to tackle the second wave, has been extended, Yediyurappa and team appear totally clueless on dealing with this wave. It would thus be wise to appoint a panel of reputed economists to suggest the way forward, before it is too late. The present relief package is nothing but an attempt by the government to clean up its backyard in order to deflect criticism while it should, in reality, be looking at the bigger picture of putting the economy back on track.