Chief Secretary seeks constructive participation against Covid-19

Dimapur, April 14 (EMN): Admitting that shortcomings and mistakes on the part of the government and other stakeholders are bound to be there, Chief Secretary Temjen Toy on Tuesday appealed to the citizens of the state to ‘constructively participate’ in the fight against the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

According to a DIPR report, the chief secretary assured that the government of Nagaland is sparing no efforts to tackle the pandemic. “…but since it is a completely new disease, like the rest of the world, we are struggling and learning only now on how to fight the spread and control the disease.”

Toy said that regardless of the shortcomings “we are learning each day—learning from others through both their bad and good practices”. He said that the present crisis has ‘made us realise the inadequacy of our health delivery system’ and that the government is trying its best to upgrade it in the quickest way possible.

The chief secretary also informed that a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio was held on Tuesday, with ministers and advisors, ‘where inadequacies in the districts were discussed and directions for action to be taken were identified’.

Saying that the war on Covid-19 pandemic ‘is a fight of the people’, Toy emphasised that the co-operation of the civil societies is very much needed at this hour. Consequently, all deputy commissioners have been directed to include two representatives from the respective tribe hohos in the district task force that has been set up to combat the pandemic, he added.