Chandigarh, April 13– Haryana Chief Minister Mr. Manohar Lal said that the selfless manner, in which social organizations in our country are working to serve the society, is matchless all over the world. While heaping praise on such organizations, he appealed to about 30,000 social organizations and NGOs working in Haryana to come forward to fight this global crisis.

The Chief Minister was addressing the people of the State during the 'Haryana Aaj' programme, after holding a two-hour long discussion with the representatives of social institutions through video conferencing here today.

said that there is always a great sense of social service in the motto or slogan of the social organizations. He gave the example of 5S motto of Bharat Vikas Parishad i.e. ‘Sampark, Sahyog, Sanskar, Seva and Samarpan’, and said that if anyone connects to this, then he himself expresses his willingness to serve the society in a selfless manner.

He said that human beings work for society, for the sake of the welfare of others. Our scriptures also mention ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, which means that the world is one family, social organizations work for the welfare of society with this goal.

The Chief Minister said that even developed countries like America are not left untouched from the devastation caused by Corona. There has been a large number of deaths and millions of people are infected due to COVID in that country. He said that the people of India have the spirit of social service. At present we are in the second phase of this epidemic which is a safe zone. He said that the third phase is that of community transmission that has to be stopped at all cost and we have to try to curb this epidemic in the second stage itself.

He informed the people that those who are engaged in the prevention of this pandemic, be it doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, lab technicians, ambulance drivers and even police personnel, are creating awareness among people in every village, locality and street to stay safe in their homes.

The Chief Minister said that 90 lakh food packets and 4.80 lakh dry ration packets had been distributed to the needy by all District Administration in the State in collaboration with various social organizations. He said that Haryana Corona Relief Fund has been created in which so far, about Rs 150 crore has been contributed, including Rs 70 crore contributed by government employees and Rs 75 crore by others. Similarly, MLAs have also promised to contribute one month’s salary along with 30 percent salary every month for a period of one year. Apart from this, former MLAs had also agreed to contribute one month’s pension towards the State Corona Relief Fund.

He urged the voluntary organizations to give the information of the people associated with their organizations to the district administration and he would personally write letters to members of the social organizations seeking their cooperation.

The Chief Minister said that in Haryana industrial and economic activities would be started in a phased manner, for this, the districts which had been identified as hotspots namely Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal and Nuh are included in the Red Zone and the districts where the people who can potentially be affected with Corona and are kept in quarantine are included in the orange zone and the areas where no corona patients have been found has been included in the green zone.

The Chief Minister congratulated the people on the occasion of Vaisakhi festival and said that all the festivals which come during the lockdown period cannot be celebrated together due to the social distancing norm. He appealed to the people that they should also celebrate Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Jayanti by staying in their homes.