From Trishna Pegu Doley
GUWAHATI : In Assam a meeting of all political parties under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was held at Assam Administrative Staff College, Khanapara in Guwahati today to discuss about the current COVID-19 situation in the State. The meeting was attended by leadership of political parties including BJP, INC, AGP, AJP, UPPL, RJD, CPI (ML), CPI (M), Raijor Dal, NPP and National Republican Congress. Minister of Health, Government of Assam Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma and senior State government officials were also present in the meeting. Chief Minister Sonowal in his address to the representatives of the political parties urged them to put up a united fight against COVID-19. He made a call to them to engage their functionaries to generate awareness about COVID-19 and government guidelines at grassroot level apart from promoting COVID appropriate behaviour among people to overcome the pandemic.
The Chief Minister informed that the government adopted five-fold strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e. testing, tracing, treatment, COVID appropriate behavior and vaccination. He said that paramount importance has been given to protect the lives of people from the virus and accordingly appropriate guidelines are formulated. He observed that success in the fight against COVID-19 heavily depended on people adhering to the SOPs issued by the government and urged political parties to join hands with the government to sensitize people in this regard. He also called upon all political parties to work with the Team Assam spirit saying that the Assam government geared up to provide best possible treatment to people. Minister of Health Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma while stressing on maintaining COVID appropriate behaviour by people to overcome the pandemic said that awareness and united efforts hold the key to success in this fight. He pointed out that the second wave of the virus is more lethal and without synchronized efforts it would very challenging to tackle the situation.
He informed that though at present sufficient facilities are available to treat patients, however with rising numbers of positive cases situation would be very tough and therefore focus has been given to augment health facilities including increasing ICU beds, supply of oxygen etc. Dr. Sarma said that while free vaccination of people above 45 years are being regularly administered in the State, free vaccination of people in the age group of 18-45 would be taken up from first week of May. He said that already order for supply of one crore vaccines has been placed with Bharat Biotech and funds collected for Assam Arogya Nidhi would be utilized for procurement of the doses. He further said that discussion would be held today through video conference with Serum Institute for another such order. He urged people not to be complacent and remain prepared and cautious to keep themselves safe from the virus. BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Congress president Ripun Bora, AGP president Atul Bora, AJP general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan, representatives of CPI(ML), CPI(M), UPPL, Raijor Dal, NPP, National Republican Congress also shared their views in the meeting.
The political party leadership thanked the initiative taken by the Chief Minister to hold an all party meeting to discuss the situation. They also appreciated the steps taken by the State government in the first wave as well as this time also to combat the virus. They assured all support and cooperation to the government in the fight against the pandemic. They also made several suggestions including speedy vaccination, COVID test of all officials and political party representatives to be engaged in duty for counting of votes on May 2, measures to protect the interests of lower middle class and daily labourers affected by the pandemic, monitoring of private health institutions offering COVID treatment, availability of adequate health facilities etc. While Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah delivered the welcome address, Principal Secretary of Health Sameer Sinha and CEO of ASDMA GD Tripathi made presentations highlighting the present COVID situation and various steps taken by the government to combat the virus. Water Resources Minister Keshav Mahanta, Chief Minister’s Media Advisor Hrishikesh Goswami, DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta and other senior officers of the State government were also present in the meeting.
