The Super Madi Hydropower Company of Madi rural municipality in the district has provided food stuffs worth Rs 1.2 million as relief materials to the poor households in the community.

The poor and daily wage earners are facing hard times due to nationwide lockdown enforced by the government to contain the possible outbreak of coronavirus. So, they were distributed the relief materials, said rural municipality chief Bed Bahadur Gurung.

The food stuffs distributed by the hydropower company were 700 sacks of rice, 29 sacks of lentil, 15 sacks of salt and sugar each. Company chief Pushpa Jyoti Dhungana informed that as many as 700 poor households were provided the relief materials in this crisis.

On Saturday, the disaster management committee meeting had decided to distribute the relief materials in the rural municipality. For the immediate purpose, the meeting decided to provide the food stuffs of Rs 2,000 to each family.

Farmers busy in planting paddy

Damauli: At a time when the people in city area are staying at homes due to the nationwide lockdown, the rural people here are busy planting paddy.

Rajendra Poudel from Polyang from Byas municipality-11 said they were busy planting paddy without worrying about lockdown. "I’ve not bought rice from market so far. If I stop planting it, I face difficulty later," he said, adding that Chaite dhan (paddy planted on Chait month) gives good yield. The time for planting Chaite dhan is getting final for this year.

Similarly, Bishnu Bahadur Thapa from Rishing municipality-7 said, "Although the cities are closed for coronavirus fear, we’re dead busy on planting paddy."

Meanwhile, chair of Bhimad municipality-9, Iman Bahadur Thapa, said the farmers were urged to maintain distance while working in fields too. "Farmers have no option to working in field, so they were urged to be cautious about the virus during cultivation too," he added.

Workers provided food items

Lamjung: Beshisahar municipality of Lamjung district has distributed relief materials to 1,087 individuals who are daily wage earners and from indigent families. They had been jobless after the government ordered lockdown to contain the possible outbreak of COVID-19. Mayor Guman Singh Aryal said the municipality developed criteria, collected the data of poor households and daily wage earners and began distributing food items. As per the criteria on relief materials, a poor family gets 30 kgs of rice, a litre of oil and one kg of gram, pulse and salt each.

Similarly, the health workers in the municipality have been provided masks, gloves and sanitizers.