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Bengaluru, April 22 (MExN): The North East Welfare Association of Karnataka (NEWAK) has called upon the State Governments of the eight North-East states to support people from the region staying in different cities through various means.
A press release from NEWAK President Vezokho Resu informed that while people from the region are facing problem due to current lockdown, bigger challenges are ahead as many employees (in private sectors) will not get salaries for the month of April. “It will be even more difficult to borrow money from people or any organization because even many companies are in huge loss due to lockdown,” it said.
More issues such as house rent, personal expenses, refilling of Gas, EMI’s etc, would arise, it added. Apart from this, the NE people often faced discrimination and are not allowed to buy groceries in some places, the association stated. In this connection, NEWAK as an apex Association, is also trying its best to help NE people who do not know how to approach their own community or State Association Leaders especially in an around Bengaluru, it said. The reason, it maintained, is due to the fact that many workers came through different agencies into jobs such as security, hotel industries, caretakers of stocks in small companies, saloons, retail companies/small shops etc.
“Most of them don’t get salaries at this juncture to pay house rent and buy rations; some become jobless and some students couldn’t receive money to buy rations due to lockdown,” it added.
“We feel this group of people deserve the most to get help at the moment since most of them don’t have anyone to support them further,” NEWAK said.
It further informed that its volunteers are “risking their lives to provide daily rations and reach out to at least 550 people from every 8 NE-States who couldn’t reach out or don’t know how to contact their respective organizations.” “Still about 1000 lists of these are pending,” it said, adding that the numbers are increasing every day. So far, the NEWAK said that they are getting support only “from ‘Sundbird Trust’ for rations and some like-minded individuals who contribute financially to spend for transportation and other miscellaneous.” However 2 to3 times relief will not be sufficient and they need money to pay their bills to stay, it said. In this regard, NEWAK urged the States and Central Government should step forward to address “this real issue.”
It further informed the people from the region to call the Association if they are in need of rations for daily survival by contacting the number 9108723370 through WhatsApp or call 8317365687.
