COVID-19 | Mukul for comprehensive plan to bring home stranded students

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 18, 2020

Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma on Saturday asked the state government to prepare a comprehensive plan for bringing back the students and migrant workers who are stranded in other states due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the COVID-19.

He also stressed on the need for immediate collection of details of all the students and migrant workers standed in different states. 

In his letter to the chief secretary MS Rao, Sangma said there are too many distress calls coming to relatives, civil society organisations and the elected representatives from the stranded students and migrant workers, their parents and relatives.

Sangma said that he was also informed that many of the stranded students, migrant workers and the parents are under anxiety and suffering from depression and being pre-disposed to psychological stress due to loss of jobs, extreme hardships, sense of low esteem, uncertainty etc.; it is also pertinent that most of the students and the migrant workers are exposed to outside the state for the first time and are not yet fully conditioned to the environment of outside world even under normal condition.

The former chief minister further suggested the need to create a dedicated team with contact numbers under respective District Disaster Management Authority for the parents and relatives or NGOs to provide the details of the stranded students, migrant workers etc.

He said the parents, relatives or NGOs be requested/urged upon to share the details through aggressive and appropriate information dissemination measures adopted by district authorities using all available means keeping in mind the psychological stress of the affected people.

The dedicated team should include qualified and appropriate persons to extend necessary counselling, under the respective District Disaster Management Authority be created for counselling and necessary reassurance who should establish contact with the stranded people and/or their parents as the case may be.

He said a dedicated toll free number for necessary counselling be created for the affected people to call and provide psychological support.

The leader of opposition further urged the state government to prepare 

a comprehensive plan for bringing back the stranded students and migrant workers and immediately submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India for smooth co-ordination with the counterpart states. 

He said the plan can include; Advance and immediate action to be taken for identifying and creation of dedicated accommodation in every district to house the stranded students and migrant workers upon arrival into their respective districts where; (i) all the stringent guidelines in respect of self-quarantining; (ii)  arrangement for proper food; and (iii) counselling are ensured.

A proposal to have a dedicated train service arranged only for the stranded students and migrant workers of our state for their evacuation from respective states till the nearest train station/rail head including Mendipathar railway station with proper food arrangement and stringent social and physical distancing norms during the time of travel.

“This should be supported by proper arrangement of road transportation from the respective place of their present stay into the designated train station and from the final destination train station to the dedicated place of accommodation arranged in the respective districts,” Sangma asserted.

He said upon arrival into the respective districts, the team in the frontlines should have compilation of history of each stranded students and migrant workers relating to work and movement of each of them to ascertain the vulnerability, if any, of contracting the virus, so as to house them in specially segregated accommodation and for necessary observation and follow up.

A mock drill of all the officers/employees in the frontlines be conducted to ensure smooth operation of the SOP which can be specifically prepared by the state for the same in a very comprehensive manner.

For students and inter-district migrant workers stranded in Shillong etc, Sangma said a similar arrangement need to be done for youth/students/inter-district migrant workers/patients and patient parties stranded in Shillong and other parts of the state for safe transportation to their respective districts who should have separate accommodations so as not to mix them up with the stranded students/migrant workers brought from other states.

The arrangement for this group should be done keeping in mind the COVID-19 positive cases in Shillong, he added

He said it is also pertinent to note the unavoidable and foreseeable development after the nationwide lockdown measures are withdrawn;  the expected rush to return by the stranded students/migrant workers to respective states of origin is likely to expose our people to other possible asymptomatic COVID-19 infected people should they travel in common overcrowded trains. 

That will undo all the hard work being collectively put by the State machinery, particularly the frontline workers and, the collective effort put up by the people and the hardships endured will go in vain. 

“Further, even if we wait for the current nationwide lockdown to be over, after return and arrival of the stranded students and migrant workers from other parts of the country, they will invariably be required to be kept in separate accommodation and in quarantine for further observation and testing etc,” he said adding it is only proper and appropriate to take measures immediately.