Meghalaya: HYC suggests state govt to cut 30 per cent salaries of MLAs and officials for fighting pandemic

SHILLONG:

The Hynñiewtrep Youth Council (HYC) has stated that the State Government should take a call to cut down salaries of Ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats by 30 per cent for this financial year towards a special fund for fighting the pandemic.

In a letter to the Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong, secretary of the organization Roy Synrem said that the MLA Scheme for the year 2021-2022 should be deducted by 50 per cent and this money may be used towards setting up of Community Quarantine Centres, buying ventilators and Covid Vaccines, keeping a buffer stock of Oxygen Cylinders, activating and equipping PHCs, CHCs and District Hospitals in the State towards the fight against the disease.

He said that the Dorbar Shnong (village councils) mostly depend on contributions of the residents to carry out any programs and with no funding from the Government or the District Councils adding that some Dorbar Shnongs have expressed their inability to accept the Government’s call for setting up of such Quarantine Centres this time around.

Synrem said that the Government should find a solution to this problem faced by the Dorbar Shnong and it should quickly assist the Dorbar in setting up the Centres in their localities and villages.

The organization has urged the state government to convene a meeting of all the MLAs of the State to discuss and deliberate on the way forward.

Step up rural health infrastructure

The organisation has expressed concern that COVID designated wards and beds in the Hospitals in Shillong city will be fully occupied in the next couple of days, following the surge in active cases and the upward spikes which will strain hospitals in Shillong.

The organization pointed out that COVID patients of Category C & D are being brought to the hospitals in Shillong for treatment.

Synrem said that Government Hospitals in other Districts of the State like Civil Hospital in Nongstoin, Mairang, Nongpoh, Jowai, Williamnagar, Tura, Baghmara, Ampati and Khliehriat and MCH Hospitals in Panaliar and Tura should be activated to treat COVID patients from the respective districts.

“District or Civil Hospital is supposedly to be staffed with Medical Officers, physicians, surgeons and other specialists, Nurses and paramedical personnel and has facilities for keeping indoor patients and for patients requiring intensive care,” he said.

He said that all the District hospitals should have designated beds and wards for COVID patients as well as equipped with life-saving medicines, oxygen cylinders and ventilators.

He has also suggested that the State Government take steps towards making all the 110 Functioning PHCs and 30 CHCs in the State be activated to accommodate and monitor patients falling under Categories A & B, in their respective jurisdictions, if the surge in rural areas is to be stopped, as home isolation is not a viable and practical solution in villages.

(Edited by Christopher Gatphoh)

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