The government will spend 35 billion rupees ($463.06 million) on food for nearly 80 million migrant workers over the next two months, Sitharaman told a news conference. The allocation is part of a 20 trillion rupee ($266 billion) fiscal and monetary package to prop up the ailing economy. "The government is concerned about migrant workers," Sitharaman said, and had provided funds to states to provide shelter, food grain and transport for migrants. The government also plans to extend a bank loan interest subsidy programme for affordable housing to rented housing for migrant workers, she said. Sitharaman said street vendors and farmers would get new subsidised bank loans, and that nearly 30 million farmers had so far benefited from a three-month moratorium on bank loans amounting to 4.22 trillion rupees.

Source: bd News24 May 14, 2020 13:07 UTC