Dimapur, April 16 (MExN): Opposition legislator YM Yollow Konyak on Wednesday alleged “clear negligence on the part of the PDA government” in tacking the COVID-19 pandemic and said that the state government’s “claims of preparedness beforehand seem to have been a deception to the 22.8 lakh citizens it is called to serve.”
The NPF MLA reasoned that “the weight of the responsibility for the lack of preparedness (in terms of medical infrastructure) cannot be shouldered by the present PDA government alone,” but however pointed out that the present government had “a head start of over 2 months after the first positive case in Kerala on January 30.” Additionally, he said that even after the lockdown from March 24, the PDA government received a time period of over 2 weeks before the first positive case from Nagaland.
As such, the MLA claimed that it was "clear negligence on the part of the PDA government to be unprepared for a single patient when the need arose.” All claims of preparedness beforehand seem to have been a deception to the 22.8 lakhs citizens it is called to serve, he said.
The MLA also referred to reports in The Morung Express where Chief Secretary Temjen Toy “assured that the state was prepared to handle COVID patients in the COVID hospital with all facilities required.” On this, MLA Yollow stated that “this is a gross misuse of public trust, since the very next day the Nagaland Post carried an article under the headline ‘COVID Hospital Dimapur unprepared,’” and questioned “why did the Chief Secretary mislead the Naga public?”
On the alleged supply of PPEs that were either incomplete sets or of inferior quality, the Yollow questioned the government as to why “frontline warriors, who shoulder the catastrophic burden of the pandemic left are without proper arsenal.” In addition to PPEs and medical infrastructure, doctors and nurses have to be provided with medical training, he added.
The MLA also drew attention on the matter of “Government Funds and the donations to CM Relief Fund” and said that the government “seems to have given its undivided attention to supply grains to a population that is mainly rural and engaged in the agricultural sector. Such attention should have been divided with the medical infrastructure too.”
“The government has failed to be transparent about the cause of delay on the medical front and thereby fuelled rumours and fake news contributing to public panic,” he added.
“The news of two labs to be created in Dimapur (BSL 2) and Kohima (BSL 3) is welcome news,” he stated while suggesting that the government makes plans regarding the citizens of the 10 other districts.
