VIJAYAWADA: The Janta Curfew (people’s curfew) may be a grand success with the voluntary participation of people, but it had left several homeless poor and destitutes in the city with empty stomach.
Though the district administration gave enough publicity to make the Janata Curfew a success, no adequate measures were taken to provide food to destitutes, daily wagers, small hotel workers among others. Several hundreds staying on footpaths at Gandhi Nagar, near city railway station and Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) are the worst affected.
They had no option and but to starve following closure of canteens, mess and street food vendors. As per the civic body estimates, Vijayawada has around 2,000 homeless, poor and destitutes staying in various parts of the city.
Vizag native D Suri Naidu told TNIE that he had been working as a cook in a hotel in Vijayawada for the past 10 years. "Following coronavirus scare, we are not getting enough work. The lodge owners are not allowing us to stay on their premises after a suspected coronavirus case was reported in the city," he lamented.
Suri Naidu urged the civic officials to shift them to the shelter homes, provide food and accommodation until the situation becomes normal. Another, D Gopala Krishna, a native of Nellore, who is working as a steward at a catering company explained the plight of the daily wage labourers like him.
He said that they are facing a tough time due to lack of employment as the government has instructed the public to postpone marriages and other social gatherings to combat coronavirus. "We have no option, but to stay on the roads, but the police are preventing us from staying on the footpaths in the wake of coronavirus. In this scenario, the government should come up with a policy to provide financial assistance, food and shelter for us considering our plight," he said.
Speaking to TNIE, Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) estate officer A Sridhar said that the civic body has supplied food for around 300 homeless poor and destitutes at Gandhi Nagar in the evening and another 600 persons staying near Benz Circle, Chitti Nagar, Eluru Road, near railway station and Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) at night.
When asked why the VMC officials are not shifting them to shelter homes being maintained in various parts of the city, he said that special teams were deployed to shift them to the shelter homes on Monday. The corporation has decided to provide food two times a day for at least 1,000 destitutes till March 31, he added.
"As part of our social responsibility, we have reached out to feed the homeless poor and destitutes in the city as the establishments and workplaces were shut down following Janata Curfew," Adarsha Rural Health And Economic Development Society (ARHEDS), NGO project director V RamaKrishna said.
He called upon other NGOs and volunteers to rise up to the occasion and provide food for destitutes until the situation becomes normal.