Meghalaya Congress criticises Govt's handling of COVID situation
The Meghalaya Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Saturday trained its guns on the state government, alleging the latter of being "unprepared" in dealing with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The state government is not prepared with adequate infrastructure to provide support for critical Covid cases, like Oxygen, ICUs, etc. and other related infrastructure to meet the requirements for the treatment of Covid patients in the hospitals of the state," the Congress alleged.
The CLP met on Saturday under the chairmanship of senior leader Dr Mukul Sangma via zoom conferencing to review the Covid situation in Meghalaya and the performance of the state government in tackling the pandemic.
"Many COVID patients from other districts are being referred to the hospitals in Shillong due to the poor infrastructure of the district hospitals, CHCs and PHCs," the Congress MLAs said, adding that this, in turn, puts additional pressure on the availability of beds in the city hospitals.
The CLP demanded the government to immediately ramp up the health care facilities and make each health care centre in the districts and subdivisions functional, including strengthening of manpower for both Covid and Non-Covid patients.
Expressing concern over the alarming increase in the number of COVID deaths, the Congress attributed the sudden spike in the death toll to the government's decision of keeping COVID patients under home isolation and various inadequacies in the hospitals to treat the patients.
The CLP also expressed its anguish over the delay to set up COVID Care Centres and fully equipped COVID hospitals throughout the state.
It also criticised the state government for allegedly neglecting the ASHAs, who are the frontline workers. "The ASHAs have been exhaustively attending to their duties without any incentives from the government," the Congress leaders alleged.
The CLP also expressed its dismay over the decision of the government to provide ex gratia of Rs 50,000 to the family of those who died due to COVID.
"Since this pandemic is already declared as a National Disaster, the state government should treat every death of a Covid patient as part of the disaster and hence provide the ex-gratia as per the provision of the law duly notified under the National Disaster Management Act," it observed.
The Congress MLAs also felt that the government should extend support to community isolation centres set up by various Dorbar Shnong(s) in their respective localities.
Meanwhile, the CLP has decided to inspect the Corona Care Centres and the Health centres in every district starting next week to get first-hand information on the existing health care facilities.
Edited by Ibankyntiew Mawrie
TNT-The Northeast Today is now on WhatsApp. CLICK HERE to receive more updates on your phone
ALSO WATCH:
