Surat Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani says migrants part of Surat family, will take care of them.
Surat Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani on Tuesday spoke to India TV during its special coverage #ZilaSammelan on how the city is dealing to contain the spread of coronavirus. Banchhanidhi Pani said that the city at present has 340 active cases of coronavirus out of who 114 have been discharged while overall cases in Surat are currently above 1,300. Surat has one of the highest recovery rate of 69.8 per cent and a growth rate of 3 per cent in terms of COVID cases.
Banchhanidhi said keeping over 9,000 people in quarantine has been a big challenge. The commissioner also said that over 5,000 people arrived in the city from over 97 countries that has been a challenge for the administration in time of coronavirus.
Another challenge which Banchhanidhi mentioned is the issue of maintaining social distance at small shops compared to in shoping complexes. Although he mentioned that with the opening up of industries, it will help economy to restart.
On migrants issue, Banchhanidhi Pani said that Surat is one of the fastest developing city in the world which attracts migrant labour force in huge numbers. Pani informed that over 15 lakh migrants from more than 12 states work here.
During this hour of crisis, Surat Municipal Commissioner said that in the past 60 days, the city administration has distributed over 3 crore 18 lakh food packets to the needy ones. He said that migrants are part of Surat family for whom the government has provided free medical screening, free bus servcices. At present, a total of 5,05,830 migrants have been sent to their native places.
