DNCC Mayor-elect Atiqul and BD Clean to distribute food to 3,000 low-wage earners

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor-elect Atiqul Islam and BD Clean, a youth-based platform, have joined hands to distribute food among the poor and low-wage earners as public transport services have been suspended in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

"We are already equipped with enough food to be distributed among 3,000 people," Atiqul told BSS.

BD Clean will aid him in the initiative to provide each family with 5 kg of rice, 1 kg lentil, 1 litre oil, 1 kg potato and 1 soap bar, he said, adding that the organisation will also oversee the distribution.

The mayor-elect also called upon his acquaintances and affluent people to get involved in this humanitarian action, the scope of which will be expanded.

Farid Uddin, founder and chief coordinator of BD Clean, told BSS that they will distribute the food according to a list of families they have made.

The global coronavirus pandemic has so far left over 21,000 people dead across the world while around three billion people are in lockdown.

In Bangladesh, the government closed all offices from March 26 to April 4 and suspended operations of all public transports, trains, vessels and domestic flights so that people stay at home to maintain social distancing to limit the spread of the deadly virus.