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Dimapur, June 2 (EMN): The Janata Dal United (JDU) Nagaland state unit has urged the state government to come up with “its planned roadmap on easing the lockdown restrictions so as to bring back normalcy of lives and resumption of economic activities”, stating that lockdown is more of a temporarily preventive mechanism and cannot be imposed permanently.
The JDU state unit, through a press release issued by its publicity wing, expressed its concern on the ongoing lockdown in the state. It said various stages of lockdown have given India and the world a window to combat the novel coronavirus in a planned manner.
“The lockdown is to be utilised as an opportunity to contemplate not only on issues of quarantine but more on post-lockdown policies by systematically easing the restrictions imposed in the earlier stages of lockdown. Therefore, the state cannot allow itself to be sunk to the issue of quarantine and its ramifications which could be unavoidably, natural or a result of wrong approaches or cross negligence of standard operating procedure (SOP),” the press communiqué read.
Stating that quarantine is not an end in itself and not altogether a solution, it said various states have already drawn its roadmaps as the country enters the fifth stage of lockdown; and even Delhi, which has second highest Covid-19 cases in the country, has opened all shops, market and salons, and night curfew relaxed. It went on to state that all religious places, hotels, restaurants and malls will be opened in Assam by June 8.
Saying that three months -- March, April and May – are enough to draw out future strategies with respect to battling the ongoing pandemic, the JDU Nagaland has appealed to the concern authorities to resume economic activities and “make the exit plan transparent so as to create confidence in the mind of the general populace of Nagaland”.
The government also must come up with a strategy to mitigate the problems already created in the economic sectors due to the ongoing pandemic; special economic package to help restore and restart the devastated economy, especially, for the small-time business community, who are the worst affected, the party stated.
The party also expressed its gratitude to all the frontline workers who are tirelessly working in these trying times and appealed to the public to co-operate with the guidelines of the implementing agencies. It went on to ‘appeal to the public to change our narrow concept towards the understanding of the Covid-19 and stop the stigmatisation of Covid-19 patients or returnees’.