Opp Congress demands govt to make ‘social stigma’ a criminal offence

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 31, 2020

The opposition Congress has demanded the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government to come up with strong legislation by making ‘social stigma’ a criminal offence.

This came a day after a pregnant woman lost her newborn baby at Ganesh Das Government Maternal and Child hospital, which had earlier refused to admit her just because she came from Mawlai Mawtawar, which has been declared as a containment area.

“The government should come up with strong legislation or ordinance by making social stigma a criminal offence. It is mandated by law empowering the Government then only we can control,” Congress spokesperson and MLA from Rangsakona Zenith M Sangma said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Condemning the incident, Sangma, who is also AICC secretary, said, “This is nothing but due to negligence of the authority. The Hospital authority, at the first instance, should not have denied to admit the patient only because she is one of the residents of the containment area. This is nothing but social stigmatization made by the Hospital staff.”

On the government’s decision to issue show-cause notice to the hospital authority, the Congress leader however said, “Issuing show-cause notice is not going to help.”

He further slammed the government and said “It (incident) is the reflection of inefficiency and lack of experience of the leadership for governance. After something goes wrong or after some precious life is lost, they always try to find out the remedy. The Government has proven itself as insensitive time and again.”

Sangma further alleged that the government has declared certain areas as containment zones but without any preparedness adding when certain areas are declared as containment zones, they are curtailing the rights of the residents, neither are they allowed to come out.

“Therefore, it is incumbent upon the Government to ensure that the residents get proper food and other essential commodities mandated by the Disaster Management Act, 2005,” he said while accusing the government of taking decisions without taking the local authorities including headmen on board.

“We are lucky that in Shillong, we have the Rangbah Shnong already in place and they are voluntarily working day and night supporting the Government. Due to lack of coordination, everything is not going in the right direction. Problem is, we are from the opposition, belonging to the other party,” he said.

The Congress leader further concluded by saying, “Therefore even if we speak the truth and give constructive suggestions, they will always say that we play politics at this time of crisis.”