Meghalaya Government taking ‘panic decisions’ on Covid-19: Congress

Shillong: Meghalaya’s Opposition Congress on Tuesday alleged that the National People’s Party (NPP)-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government was taking “panic decisions” regarding the management of the COVID-19 situation in the State, even as it criticized Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma for having stated that he need not quarantine after coming back from the swearing-in ceremony of Himanta Biswa Sarma as the new Chief Minister of neighbouring Assam.
“There should be proper planning while making any strategies to contain the spread of the virus. Instead of being pro-active in dealing with the Covid situation, the government is rather found to be taking panic decisions,” senior Congress legislator and AICC Secretary. Zenith M. Sangma said in an e-mailed statement.
“On May 5 morning the news spread that there would not be lockdown instead there will be identification and declaration of containment and micro-containment zones to prevent the spread of virus. But on the contrary, at around 1 pm on the same day, the government announced that from 8 pm there will be complete lockdown for five consecutive days,” he said.
“Then all of a sudden people rushed to the market making it overcrowded and started panic buying, breaking all the protocol norms and SOPs, which the police and other enforcing agencies could not
control,” Zenith said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is not new to Meghalaya and since the advent of the pandemic there was a demand for the construction of designated COVID hospital in Tura. However, the Chief Minister realized that the numbers were going down at one point of time last year and therefore put a halt in the project,” the Congress legislator claimed.
“How can he (CM) draw such a conclusion when everyone was preparing for the second wave of COVID-19,” the Congress legislator asked.
“Suddenly with surge in COVID 19 cases the Government which was sleeping for more than one year, has decided to construct COVID hospital in Tura. COVID is here to stay and the Government should have anticipated that,” Zenith insisted.
“Due to complacency and lack of farsightedness, we are facing the problem and even we are losing precious lives. Every day 8-9 people are succumbing to this virus,” the Congress spokesperson said.
Attacking Chief Minister Conrad for attending the Swearing-in Ceremony of Assam Chief Minister along with some of his ministers and his entourage, Zenith said, “the Chief Minister was trying to justify that since he has taken both the doses of vaccines, he need not be tested nor has to quarantine. I wonder what is the Chief Minister trying to make the people know about. Even if someone has taken vaccine, one can still be a carrier of the virus.”
“It is completely misleading statement before the state, that too from the Chief Minister, which is very detrimental. Therefore, in the fitness of things, the Chief Minister should give proper explanation
correcting his previous statement,” the AICC secretary demanded.