AGARTALA, May 6 (TIWN): Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb today announced that 50,000 poor APL families, who got free ration, would now receive one-time assistance of Rs. 1000 each— total Rs. 5 crore from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

He said this while addressing the people via a video message this evening.

The Chief Minister also made another important announcement for all the citizens including the frontline warriors in the fight against COVID19.

He announced that the state government would provide Rs. 10 lakh in case of death of any frontline worker- Doctors, nurse, health workers, Paramedics, Police personnel, Journalists, sweeping staff, ICP staff, ASHA workers including the civil administration and line departments along with all the citizens. The ex-gratia of Rs. 4 lakh, earlier declared by the state government, would be given from SDRF and the remaining Rs. 6 lakh to be given from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

In another important move, the state government has made arrangement for train bookings today to send back 33,000 migrant workers to their respective states. All the expenditures (around Rs. 2.50 crore) would be borne from CMRF.

Besides, the state government has decided to bring back Tripura’s citizens now stranded in other parts at government expense. Two trains would run to Tripura—one from Bangalore (expenditure Rs. 14.50 lakh) and another from Chennai (expenditure around Rs. 16 lakh), the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister also announced COVID19 tests for all the media personnel who are now working on the ground. He said the samples would be collected in special arrangements step by step. The media persons move from one place to another-- there is nothing to worry, but the state government doesn’t want to take any risk, he added.

People are wearing masks and maintaining social distancing norms—it is appreciable, he said while urging the people not to go out of their home without any emergency.

Addressing the people, the Chief Minister said a woman- Jyoti Rani Das died at Hrishyamukh after a tree collapsed and fell down upon her due to severe storm. He announced a financial assistance of Rs.4 Lakh to the deceased’s family. The local administration already gave Rs. 5000 and the remaining amount- Rs. 3,95,000 would be given through DBT, he added.

In a video message, the Chief Minister said all the active COVID19 cases are from 138-Bn BSF of Ambassa. The positive part is that there is no transmission among the local people of Ambassa so far; he said adding that the state government had already spoken to IG, BSF on this matter.

The Chief Minister thanked Bandhan Bank founder Chandrashekhar Ghosh, resident of Bishalgarh, for donating Rs. 5 crore to Chief Minister’s Relief Fund on behalf of Northeast Financial Inclusion Trust. He also gave Rs. 3 crore earlier to CMRF to strengthen the fight against COVID19.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister today launched an online portal for providing Smart Phones to 14, 608 final-year students of Colleges/ Universities, as promised by the government earlier.