RajivSpeak

Amitabh Kant Was the Government of India serious when it  asked  92,000 civil society organizations (CSOs) in early April to “assist” state governments and district administrations in taking care of food, shelter and other needs of migrant workers, known to have been affected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ sudden 21-day lockdown in order to “combat” the spread of Covid-19 virus, announced on March 24?

  Findings of a telephonic-survey by interviewing 3,121 households across 50 plus cities of the country from May 7 to May 17, 2020 by scholars of the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), Delhi, have suggested that eight out of 10 casual daily wage labourers and six out of 10 salaried workers reported unemployed or loss employment during lockdown due to closure of business/construction activities and inability to visit their workplaces.

A report on the status of the Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions (SICs) across India during the Covid-19 crisis, released by two civil rights organizations, Satark Nagrik Sangathan and Centre for Equity Studies, has said that of the 29 commissions set up under the Right to Information (RTI) Act , 21 have not held any hearings during during the lockdown period, currently in its fourth phase.

Sabarmati downstream of Ahmedabad before lockdown A new Gujarat government report, “Impact of Lockdown due to Covid-19 Pandemic on Surface Water Quality”, published by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) has claimed that the health of several of Gujarat rivers, many of which fall into the list of the most-polluted rivers of India, has improved, thanks to “the enforcement of the national lockdown.”

A fresh round of telephonic survey carried out by a group of activists suggests that while 82% of respondents have ration card, and of these 96% said they do receive grain from the fair price shops, nearly half of them (54%) said they have not received two months’ ration in April despite clear government directions.