Chandigarh cops help family threatening to commit suicide over lack of food amid lockdown

The Chandigarh Police on Saturday extended help to a family which ran out of food due to 21-day pan-India lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak and threatened to commit suicide. Police said they received a distress call from a woman saying she, along with her husband and a sick child, will commit suicide as they have no means to buy food and medicine, it said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Dilsher Singh, along with area station house officer, rushed to the family's residence in Maulijagran and gave them food and some money, it said. Punjab police have also stepped up its relief operations and supplied 2,23,605 packets on Saturday – an increase of 19 percent from Friday.

In the last three days, a total of 5,42,000 units of food have been distributed among all districts in the state. Punjab has 38 positive cases of the coronavirus. One person had died in the state, while the first positive case has been discharged.

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Coronavirus in India

As of March 29, India has reported  898 cases so far, and 19 deaths. To tackle the growing cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown for 21 days. The highest number of cases have been reported from Maharashtra - 186 cases and Kerala - 182 cases.

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Prime Minister Modi established a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected, a public charitable trust under the name of ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ (PM CARES Fund).

(with PTI inputs)

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