The Odisha government has sanctioned the release of funds worth ₹62 crores, which it had promised earlier as an incentive for those quarantining in the state-run facilities, from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF). In the primary phase, the fund has been released for three lakh rural returnees and over ten thousand urban recipients.
Official sources revealed that out of the total of ₹62 crores, ₹60 crores have been released for the Panchayati Raj department for payment of incentive to those in rural areas, while the remaining sum of ₹2 crores from the corpus was granted in favour of the Housing and Urban Development Department, intended for payment of those dwelling in urban areas.
The amount sanctioned for the Urban Development department is significantly lesser as the administration had allowed home quarantine for those in urban areas. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had earlier taken a pioneering step by encouraging self-quarantine with a monetary incentive of ₹2000 for those undergoing quarantine. The mandatory institutional quarantine period of 14 days has now been reduced to seven days, followed by another seven days of home quarantine in rural areas.