BSL-2 lab: More than half works completed

Our Correspondents
Kohima, May 28 (EMN): Fifty-five percent of the ongoing construction works on bio-safety level-2 (BSL-2) laboratory at the Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research (CIHSR), Dimapur has been completed, according to official sources.

Kesonyu Yhome, Secretary for Health and Family Welfare, informed this to Eastern Mirror on Thursday following an ‘inspection report’ on May 27.

According to him, completing 60 to 65% of the works ‘take lesser time but the remaining percent, to furnish the facility, takes more time as it needs to be a detailed exercise to complete the project’.

Yhome also informed that one more consignment of equipment for the lab in Dimapur is expected to arrive ‘any time this week’.

The state government had written to the Indian Air Force (IAF) for delivery of the consignment. The official added that delivery of the consignment depends on weather conditions.

Final verdict likely after four weeks

The Kohima bench of Gauhati High Court has ruled that the next hearing with regard to the BSL lab in Dimapur will be held after four weeks, “on which date, endeavour would be made to dispose of the entire matter”.

The order came after a hearing on the case was held on May 26.

The case concerns Public Interest Litigation filed by a resident of Kohima, Kikrukhonuo, against the state of Nagaland, represented by the chief secretary and three others—principal and secretary, Health and Family Welfare; principal director, directorate of Health and Family Welfare; and Union of India represented by the secretary, government of India.