Sitharaman attends office sporting home-made mask

As Union ministers and their staff attended offices on Monday after the a gap of around three weeks, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman too returned to her North Block office, putting on a home-made mask.

The ministers were working from home since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a three-week nationwide lockdown from March 24 midnight due to coronavirus scare.

Sharing a picture of her working from office, Sitharaman said: "Back to working in North Block office with a home-made mask this morning."

The Finance Minister leads a COVID-19 Economic Response Taskforce to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the Indian economy. She faces a very tough task of getting the economy back on track, which was already subdued prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

She is currently overseeing the preparation of the much-anticipated stimulus package for the industry as businesses have suffered severely due to the nationwide lockdown.

The minister has already announced an economic relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore for the poor and migrant workers under the Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Yojana. As of April 10, the Centre has provided financial assistance of Rs 28,256 crore to 31.77 crore beneficiaries under the scheme. IANS