Cong picks holes in Covid management

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jun 8 : Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee president, K Govindas has alleged 'gross' mismanagement in the fight against Covid by the BJP-led State Government.
Speaking to people of Manipur via Facebook live, he highlighted that the Congress Party has been consistently extending all possible help to the people in this trying time. The party has also been consistently raising questions, giving suggestions to the BJP-led Government in the State, he said.
The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee has also written to the Prime Minister, requesting for DRDO to build 1000 bedded exclusive Covid dedicated hospital in the State and asked if there is any harm if the Chief Minister pursues the same in the larger interest of the people and help fight the 3rd wave of Covid.
Unfortunately, whatever the party has raised in the interests of the people to both the BJP Governments in the State and the Centre, has not been responded positively and it has prompted to bring out the mismanagement to the people, he alleged.
Lok Sabha MP had charged that the Opposition including the Congress, had gone quiet in fight against Covid, but, contrary to it, Congress has never been silent as it has been raising questions for the people to the Government.
The Chief Minister on March 30 last year, assured to build 200 bedded emergency Covid Hospital at Langthabal in the midst of the 1st wave of Covid pandemic. However there has been no such dedicated hospital even after people are facing a second wave, he said.
Had the hospital been there in the 1st wave itself, many lives could have been saved today, he said.
It shows that the BJP-led Government has not learnt anything from the 1st wave to protect the people from the 2nd wave, he said and asked whether it is not the failure on the part of the Government.
The party believes that there could be neither excuses nor forgiveness for the Government’s gross failure in the 2nd wave, he said.
On vaccination, the party president said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has advocated vaccination as the only primary solution to fight Covid pandemic in the country. The party also accepted that only through free universal vaccination innocent lives can be saved and protected from Covid infections and deaths. But unfortunately not even 3% of the State's population has been vaccinated with 2nd dose and many of those who are waiting for the 2nd dose are clueless of their specific dates to get their dose, he said.
The party, along with CLP leader O Ibobi Singh, had urged the Governor for free universal vaccination of all before the third wave of the pandemic hits the State, he added.
Free vaccination as announced by the Prime Minister is a bit late, he said while adding that many lives would have been saved if he had made the announcement earlier. Moreover it is very unfortunate that the Chief Minister cannot give a timeline on when 100 percent of the eligible population will be vaccinated against the virus.
People still do not know the type/s of variants of Covid infecting the people as the State Government has not released the results of the genomic sequencing of the samples sent, he said while questioning as to how the Government will fight it without knowing the variants.
He also went on to ask why the Chief Minister who also holds the Health portfolio has failed to provide RT-PCR kits to all districts as other test methods have very low or questionable efficacy.
While expressing concern over deaths due to non-availability of ICUs and ventilators in District Hospitals, the MPCC president who is also a part of the State Covid Consultative Committee, said that he had suggested to strengthen district health care centres and make ICUs functional with adequate man power to reduce the mounting pressure on hospitals in the city in the last week of April.
Considering the economic situation of the people, the party has demanded free treatment of all Covid patients in private hospitals too. But, contrary to the demand raised, the State Government, instead of regulating high treatment cost for Covid patients, fixed the cost in favour of the private hospitals, thereby allowing the rapid commercial profiteering.
Why did not the State Government include the prices of Remdesivir and PPE kits in the costs of treatment fixed by the Government, he questioned and said how can the poor, who have been out of work due to curfew and containment measures be expected to buy Remdesivir and PPE kits on their own.
If the Government is really citizen centric and care for all, the Government should announce a financial package at the earliest, Govindas said and questioned why the Government has not released any data describing how many medicines have been procured to fight 'Black Fungus'.
Students in higher educational institutes such as universities and colleges are worried for their academic future, but sadly the Government has so far not revealed the policy of higher education to ensure their academic year is not lost, he said while further questioning how well prepared the Government is to tackle the third wave of Covid.