The Rajasthan government has allotted around Rs 1,250 crore for Covid-19 related expenditure, according to data collected from various departments.

This includes expenses on social security pensions, one-time relief of Rs 2,500 to 14 million families, free wheat to families under National Food Security Act, masks, gloves and PPE kits, laboratories, ventilators, quarantine centre, shelters for migrant workers, screening and survey, and rapid testing kits.

The biggest chunk of this is being spent on social security. According to additional director of social justice and empowerment department, SK Gupta, Rs 800 crore was spent on giving one-time relief of Rs 2,500 to about 14 million poor families, who are not covered under social security pension scheme. These included Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, registered construction workers, street vendors and other workers, rickshaw pullers and the destitute people.

“The money was transferred to the bank accounts of people by Department of Information and Technology (DoIT). For people who don’t have bank accounts, money was given the district collectors,” he said.

For medical and other related needs, Rs 307 crore has been given from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), Rs 72.95 crore from budget for 2019-20, and Rs 224.78 crore from budget for 2020-21.

Rajasthan’s allocation for SDRF in 2019-20 was Rs 1,340 crore and was raised to Rs 1,975 crore this fiscal.

Secretary of disaster management department Siddharth Mahajan said that Rs 211.27 crore was given to medical education department for facilities at medical colleges, and Rs 37.10 crore to the medical and health department for facilities at district hospitals and rapid testing kits.

The medical education got Rs 62.15 crore from 2019-20 budget and Rs 149.12 crore from budget for 2020-21 for testing facilities, ventilators, thermal scanners and other equipment.

Mahajan said that the disaster management department sanctioned Rs 2.10 crore from last year’s budget and Rs 35 crore from the coming fiscal to medical and health department for masks, personal protective equipment (PPE) kit and rapid antibody testing kits.

The district collectors got Rs 49.36 crore from SDRF for quarantine facilities, screening, shelter for migrant labourers, dry ration and food packets. The collectors also got money from this fund for providing personal protective equipment to health workers, police personnel and sanitation workers.

Mahajan said that the disaster management division of ministry of home affairs wrote to state chief secretary on March 14 about items and names of assistance from the SDRF in wake of Covid-19 outbreak. On March 28, a revised list was sent.

Apart from this, the district collectors got around Rs 50 crore from CM Relief Fund and MLA LAD as untied fund for expenses not covered under the Disaster Management Act.

The state government decided to provide free ration through Public Distribution System (PDS) to all beneficiaries under the NFSA who got wheat for Re 1 and Rs 2 a kg under normal distribution. This incurred an expenditure of around Rs 100 crore, said Mahajan, who is also secretary of the food and civil supplies department.