Govt to take a call on whether to lift the lockdown by next week: CM

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 3, 2021

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the government will take a call by next week on whether to lift the ongoing total lockdown imposed in East Khasi Hills district to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Sangma said, “Let’s wait for the official meeting. Hopefully once we sit down, we will take a call on what we will do by next week but it will depend on the trend and the numbers (of cases).”

East Khasi Hills, including the state capital, is the worst affected district with 2,814 active cases as on date.

A lockdown was first imposed in the district on May 5, which was later extended many times and will end on June 7.

Stating that the recent decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases and the increase in the recovery rate is a positive indication, Sangma however said, “But that does not mean we can take it easy and that we will let our guard’s down.”

“So we will see the trend and we will see the numbers especially the positivity rate, numbers like the hospitalization rate, we will also have to see if there is any specific growth in any areas – all those aspects we will need to examine,” he said.

Asserting that some sort of restrictions will still be there in case the lockdown is lifted, the chief minister however said allowing more activities to take place is the only question.

Regarding the impact of the pandemic on the economic activities of the people, the chief minister said that extending relief is an issue that is being examined and discussed a number of times in the meetings of the government.

“As a government, we do realize that we need to provide wherever we can support during these difficult times. The difficulty obviously in this whole situation is that the scale will be very large so if we support, it needs to be for everybody. (Moreover), the challenges of finance are also there which are not that great for the country as a whole. Keeping both these factors in mind, it is not very easy,” he explained.

“It is something that obviously we would want to do and it is something that the government must also try its best to do,” he added.

The chief minister said that the government wherever possible have tried to support through the MLAs by releasing certain funds to them besides increasing the support through the MHIS, extending ex-gratia payment to next of kin of those who died due to COVID-19.

“At the same time, if you look at the entire economic activities, unlike last time when we went for a complete lockdown and closure of everything, this time it is a very selective process where we try to see how we can minimize the economic impact on the people

Therefore, to a large extent agriculture and farming activities continued but with restriction. We also allowed the MGNREGA works to continue in some areas with restrictions of course. We try to minimize the impact on the grassroot,” he further added.