Planning commission needed to combat Covid-19 in Nagaland — JDU

‘Work on completion of state medical college; blame game must be put aside‘

Dimapur, May 18 (EMN): The Janata Dal United (JDU) Nagaland on Monday expressed the need for the state government to form a Planning Commission for combating the Covid-19, stating that the disease is here to stay for a long time.

The state unit of the party said in a press release that the government of Nagaland should simultaneously work on early “completion of the ongoing construction and development of the lone state medical college” on war-footing.

“It is indeed, saddening that when all the states of North East India are already having their own Medical Colleges and are having their own testing centres, be it of Covid-19 or of other diseases, our state is yet to have one. The present pandemic should be taken as an extraordinary wake-up call to learn a big lesson so as to ensure that in future, the state is well prepared to withstand any such health-related disaster,” the press release stated.

Stating that “this kind of pandemic or even worse” could happen in future, the party said “preparatory exercise must begin along with drawing out of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the ongoing Covd-19”.

“The blame game must be put aside. All sensible citizens of the state need to put our heads together rationally, and work out both short and long term solutions,” it stated.

The party went on to say that ‘all the hotels, guest houses, including private and government hostels must be compulsorily requisitioned and enforced as quarantined centres so that proper facilities, including medical and security, can be provided. These well-facilitated quarantined centres can be either on self-paid or sponsored system’.

‘Both Kohima and Dimapur have enough such facilities and if properly managed, all the stranded people coming from outside the state can be quarantined in a phase-wise manner within a maximum (period) of two months,’ the press release read.

Claiming that “haphazardly” build quarantined centres could “defeat the whole purpose of the cause” and even lead to catastrophic ends, it said that “the citizens cannot be put into ransom by the very method of our own callousness”.

“Nagaland is blessed to a Covid-19 free presently and this opportunity must be judiciously guarded. The state of Nagaland can be an exemplary if all of us are united,” the party stated.