The two back to back waves of Covid 19 in India drastically brought down the income level of various people, but it hit the migrant workers particularly hard. As this year the state governments took stringent on lockdowns and other restrictions, many migrant workers had to head back home once again with no money and food in hand.
Raigarh, the cultural and industrial capital of Chhattisgarh, is popularly known as the major producer of steel and iron ore in the state as well as the country. As major steel plants of Jindal Steel and Power Limited are based in Raigarh, the city caters to a huge migrant population, which got severely affected during the pandemic. However, with the efforts of SP Raigarh, Mr. Santosh Kumar Singh and the whole police force, timely aid was provided to the stranded and needy.
DISTRIBUTING FOOD PACKETS AND RATION
While speaking with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Santosh Kumar Singh said “With hundreds of big industries producing coal, steel and iron in Raigarh, the number of migrant workers in these industries is also very high. The transportation of the produce/raw material in the city was allowed during the second wave; however, the movement of people was restricted. Just like the rest of the country, Raigarh also went through the worst time during the second wave of the pandemic.”
With a huge migrant population in the city, the main challenge was to provide immediate aid to the needy like the poor, elderly, deserted persons and people in shelter homes, etc. Mr. Singh said, “During the last wave we distributed around one lakh food and ration packets to the needy and around 35,200 in the current wave. This was mainly done through the Police help desk.”
As much panic was created during the second wave, a Police help desk was formed to provide medical and logistics aid to the needy. The help desk was functional all the time and with the help of the patrolling officers, food and ration packets were distributed all around the city.
The police help desk includes a gazetted DSP rank officer and a team of 10 people who coordinated with all the police stations of Raigarh in providing aid to the needy in any part of the city.
MAKING A WORLD RECORD IN DISTRIBUTING MASKS
Apart from effectively playing a role in the distribution of food and ration packets, the Raigarh police registered a world record in notable record books, like India Book of Records, Asia Book of Records and Golden Book of World Records, by distributing around 13 lakh masks during the first wave of Covid 19. This happened on account of a mask awareness drive started in the district by the name of “Ek Rakshasutra Mask Ka”.
Said Mr. Singh, “In a single day Raigarh police distributed 12,37,000 masks, interestingly making it a world record as no such record has been made before. The initiative was taken on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan and with huge contribution from the people, masks were distributed at thousands of locations in the district.
Apart from this, Raigarh dealt with the worst phase of Covid 19 during the second phase as it saw a peak of 1,200 cases per day. However, with close monitoring of institutional quarantine centres, containment zones, contact tracing, Covid19 hospitals, home quarantines, movement of rail, plane and public transport’s passengers, etc., the Raigarh police in coordination with the district administration, public and other organisations, managed to curb the spread of the virus and assisted the needy during the worst time possible.
