COVID-19: Relief Packages Announced By State Governments So Far

Updated on: Apr 21st, 2025

5 min read

The Centre has announced a number of initiatives under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana to reduce the burden on the poor sections of the society during the lockdown. A relief package of Rs.1.70 lakh crore was allotted in the form of food security as well as a direct benefit for farmers, poor senior citizens, poor widows, poor divyangs, self-help groups, construction workers, and others.

In addition to the Centre’s package, each state of the country has announced a relief package focusing on the most affected sectors of their respective states. Societal segments, such as construction workers, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, washermen, barbers, house helps, fishermen, and more have received the relief packages in the form of financial assistance, penal interest waiver, and rebates on bills. The funds for these packages have been taken from the Chief Minister’s COVID-19 Relief Fund pertaining to each state.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the states, beneficiaries, and the benefits offered for your understanding:

Sl. No.	State Affected	Beneficiary of Relief Package	Relief Provided	Other Details
1.	Maharashtra	Construction Workers	Rs.2,000/worker	Relief paid to workers registered with the Maharashtra Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board
2.	New Delhi	Drivers of passenger-carrying vehicles	Rs.5,000	This is a one-time payment for drivers of auto-rickshaws, taxis, Gramin Sewa, Phatphat Sewa, maxi cab, Eco-friendly Sewa, e-rickshaws, and school vans.
2.	New Delhi	Health workers, including sanitation workers, doctors, and nurses	Rs.1 crore/family	Health workers who die treating coronavirus patients are called ‘martyrs’ and their families will be given Rs.1 crore
3.	West Bengal	Migrant workers and their families stranded outside the state	Financial aid	-
4.	Tamil Nadu	Low-income groups, agricultural labourers, senior citizens, auto-rickshaw drivers, construction workers, and daily wagers	Rs.1,000	A relief package of Rs.3,280 crore has been announced
5.	Karnataka	Washermen, barbers, auto-rickshaw drivers, and taxi drivers	Rs.5,000	One-time compensation
		Flower growers	Rs.25,000/hectare	In the background of flowers grown on 11,687 hectares being destroyed
		MSMEs	-	Electricity bills will be waived for two months
		Large industries	-	Payment of fixed charges in the electricity bills deferred without penalty and interest for two months
		Construction labourers	Additional Rs.3,000	Assistance of Rs.2,000 was already provided; additional assistance of Rs.3,000 will be distributed again
		Weavers	Rs.2,000	About 54,000 handloom weavers get the assistance under Weaver Samman Yojana
6.	Telangana	White ration cardholders	Rs.1,500/family	Cash will be provided along with 12kg rice/person
6.	Telangana	Migrant workers	12kg rice and Rs.500/person	Over 34,000 workers identified under GHMC received the much-needed aid
7.	Gujarat	Labourers, unorganised workers, construction workers, and house-helps	Rs.1,000 for April 2020	A total of Rs.650 crore package for 65 lakh families
		State government employees and front-line staff, such as police personnel, health and sanitation workers, revenue and food supply department staff, and fair price shopkeepers	Rs.25 lakh	If they contract COVID-19 while performing their duty and succumb to it
		Gaushalas and cattle ponds	Rs.25/animal for April 2020	Provided to all gaushalas and cattle ponds in the state
8.	Andhra Pradesh	Fishermen stuck in Gujarat	Rs.2,000/person	One-time assistance is given to each of the 6,000 fishermen stuck in Gujarat
8.	Andhra Pradesh	Underprivileged people	Rs.1,000/family	Free ration and cash for the poor on account of lockdown
9.	Rajasthan	Front-line health workers	Rs.50 lakh	An insurance cover of Rs.50 lakh to the kin of front-line workers in the case of death due to COVID-19
10.	Kerala	Families who do not receive social security pension	Rs.1,000 each
		Social security pension subscribers	Advance payment of pension amount for two months
		State residents	Rs.25 meals to be available at Rs.20	1,000 subsidised food stalls scheduled to start by September has started operations in April
		State residents	Food kits	87 lakh families receive food kits comprising 16 items each, worth Rs.1,000, in a phased manner in April 2020 (includes essentials, such as wheat flour, rava, black channa, and sunflower oil among others)
		Auto rickshaw and bus operators	-	Fitness fee for auto rickshaw will be relaxed, stage carriage and contract carriage in buses will be tax-deductible, and stage carriers will get a one-month exemption for three months’ tax
		Businessmen and traders	Due date extension	Due date for renewal of license under the Kerala Money Lenders&quo; Act and the due date for submission of Audit Certificates is extended up to 31 May 2020
		Businessmen and traders	Due date extension	Due date for online renewal of registration under the Kerala General Sales Tax is extended up to 31 May 2020
11.	Madhya Pradesh	Labourers in the unorganised sector	Rs.1,000/person	The assistance is provided through Sannirman Karmkar Mandal
		Shariya, Baiga, and Bhariya tribal communities	Rs.2,000/family	Provided as an advance
		Primary school students	Rs.155	Since schools are closed and 65.91 lakh students do not get mid-day meals, this aid was announced
		Middle-school students	Rs.232
		Farmers	Uninterrupted supply of seeds and fertilizers	-
12.	Uttar Pradesh	Daily wagers, including street vendors, auto drivers, e-rickshaw drivers, porters working in agricultural wholesale markets, and rickshaw pullers	Rs.1,000/person	A total of 4,81,755 daily wagers get the benefit of the package
13.	Punjab	Domestic, commercial, and small power industrial consumers	Electricity bill due date extension	Due date for consumers having monthly/bi-monthly electricity bills up to Rs.10,000 was extended from 20 March 2020 to 15 April 2020 without late payment fees
		Stage and contract carriage vehicles	100% exemption from motor vehicle tax	These vehicles are not allowed on roads during the lockdown.
		Motor vehicle users	Extension in due date for motor vehicle tax payment	The due date for all taxes payable under the Punjab Motor Vehicle Tax Act is extended until 30 April 2020
		Farmers	Penal interest on crop loan waived off	Penal interest on crop loans have been waived off for March and April 2020
		Construction workers	Rs.3,000	Financial assistance is provided to the registered construction workers
		Healthcare workers	Rs.4,000/family	Relief package is to help healthcare workers and PDMA cope with the pandemic
14.	Haryana	Construction workers	Rs.1,000/family/week	About 3,50,621 workers benefit from this relief package
14.	Haryana	Industrial consumers	Rebate of Rs.1,000 on electricity bills	Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission offers a rebate of Rs.10,000 on fixed charges in the electricity bill for the month of March and April
15.	Bihar	Needy families that do or do not have ration cards	Rs.1,000/family	In the case of families that don’t have ration cards, they must be identified by self-help groups of ‘Jeevika’ in the state
#rowspan#	Bihar	Migrant workers, students, and other people returning to the state	Rs.500 + reimbursement of train and other fares	-
16.	Odisha	Poorer sections of the state	Rs.1,000	94 lakh beneficiaries under the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department get cash assistance
		Construction workers	Rs.1,500	22 lakh workers get the assistance
		Street vendors	Rs.3,000	65,000 vendors across 114 urban local bodies get this financial aid
		Underprivileged people	Rs.1,000	Financial assistance is provided for 94 lakh families
		Construction workers	Rs.1,500	Relief package is provided as construction work is paused during the lockdown
		Senior citizens, widows, physically challenged, and destitute	Four months’ pension paid in advance	Those above 60 years of age get Rs.500/month as pension and those above 80 years get Rs.700/month
17.	Chattisgarh	School children	Ration instead of mid-day meals	Rice and dal are supplied to school students for the holiday period
		Staff of health department engaged in treating coronavirus infections	Special allowance	Special allowance is provided as a gesture of goodwill for fighting the pandemic
		Licence holders, permit holders, and property taxpayers	Extension in due date	Time limit to renew licences and permits increased by a month in urban bodies; last date to pay property tax extended from 31 March 2020 to 30 April 2020
		Farmers	Compensation for crops	Rs.10,000 per acre of paddy, Rs.13,000 per acre for maize, and Rs.10,000-Rs.15,000 per acre for sugarcane
18.	Himachal Pradesh	Construction workers	Rs.2,000	One-time relief fund for workers registered with Building and Construction Workers’ Board
18.	Himachal Pradesh	Social security pension holders, including widows and disabled people	Rs.3,000	The first quarter pension was released in the first week of April 2020
19.	Assam	People stranded in the other states of India	Rs.2,000/person	99,758 people were identified to be eligible to receive the assistance
19.	Assam	People stranded abroad	$1,000/person/month	34 Assamese people have received the assistance in two installments in March and April 2020
20.	Tripura	Financially weak APL families, newspaper hawkers	Rs.1,000	-
21.	Meghalaya	People stranded in other states of the country, i.e. workers, students, and professionals	Rs.3,000	1,617 people from the state are stranded elsewhere
21.	Meghalaya	Wage earners, daily labourers, and petty traders	Rs.700/week	Financial relief is provided as they are out of work during the lockdown
22.	Puducherry	Ration cardholders	Rs.2,000	As compensation for the loss of livelihood
22.		Construction workers	Rs.2,000
		Unorganised labourers	Rs.1,000
23.	Goa	Construction workers	Rs.4,000	The one-time relief is provided to workers registered construction workers
24.	Manipur	People stranded in other parts of the country	Rs.2,000	Funds will be transferred to the beneficiary’s bank account directly
25.	Arunachal Pradesh	People stranded in other parts of the country	Rs.3,500/person	-
25.	Arunachal Pradesh	Farmers	Rs.1,000/person	The relief is provided in addition to the funds distributed by the Centre to each farmer registered under the PM-KISAN scheme
26.	Sikkim	Labourers working in pharma companies working through the lockdown period	Rs.30/day	Daily wages were set for the lockdown period
#rowspan#		Sikkim police personnel, workers of health department and check posts, truck drivers, and safai karamcharis engaged in emergency duty during lockdown	Rs.3,000/person	One-time lump sum incentive is provided to lift the morale of workers who are performing emergency duty during the crisis
#rowspan#		Front-line workers	Insurance	Insurance cover is provided to all front-line workers
27.	Nagaland	Stranded workers and professionals	Rs.4,000	A total of 2,305 students, 7,380 working professionals, and 115 stranded patients are to receive the relief packages
		Stranded students	Rs.3,000
		COVID-19 patient stranded outside the state	Rs.20,000

The funds in the CM’s COVID-19 Relief Fund is a collection of donations from the public. Many organisations have also been volunteering to provide necessary help for those in need. Irrespective of the funds released, help provided, and the relief packages announced, numerous people are still struggling to lead a normal daily life. Let us hope for the COVID-19 nightmare to end soon.

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