COVID-19: Vedanta spent Rs 151 cr on preventive healthcare, free meals

Having taken various precautionary measures to ensure the safety and well-being of its employees, Vedanta has reached out to over seven lakh community members to prevent the spread of the pandemic, the company said in a statement.

Vedanta had earlier announced a Rs 100 crore corpus which it this month increased to more than Rs 200 crore for providing relief to daily workers, preventive healthcare and welfare of employees and contract partners amid the lockdown to contain coronavirus pandemic.

Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal expressed confidence that the Indian economy will become self sufficient.

"I am confident that our economy will become self-sufficient. Make in India 2.0' will be the mantra,

Start-ups will innovate, MSMEs will provide work, the mining & manufacturing industry will resurrect, and our people will emerge stronger. We will ensure strict norms for health & safety at work and recalibrate our economy," he said.

"PM Modi has full support from India Inc. and the lives and livelihoods of our people is of prime importance," Agarwal said.

The company mentioned that it has so far provided more than 5.5 lakh meals to daily wage earners across the country. Vedanta has pledged 10 lakh meals to daily wage earners in Delhi, Mumbai and Patna.

In addition, dry ration packets are being provided to 13,500 fisherman families in Mumbai. Its business units have also distributed more than 21,000 dry ration packets to local communities. Vedanta Foundation has distributed food grains to 300 families, comprising around 850 beneficiaries, at a school in Mumbai.

Keeping in mind the poor condition of stray animals, who hardly have any access to food during the lockdown, the company is feeding more than 50,000 stray animals every day.

To strengthen preventive healthcare, Vedanta has distributed more than 2.5 lakh masks across communities. The company is in the process of handing over another 2 lakh N95 masks to the Centre.

Vedanta has joined hands with the Ministry of Textiles to import 23 machines for indigenously personal protective equipment (PPEs).

The imported machines, which will be fully functional later this month, will be able to produce around 5,000 PPEs per day.