By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum has sent some observations and suggestions to the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma pertaining to Coronavirus.
In the letter to the CM, he said that on Saturday evening around 7.30 pm he went to areas adjacent to Anjalee Cinema Hall where he witnessed a chaos as a good number of retailers from Khasi and Jaintia hills districts were still collecting goods from the wholesalers beyond the curfew hours. The Magistrates and the government officials who were there tried their best to manage the situation.
He suggested the government to ask the retailers to send a message via short messaging service (SMS) their requirements to their wholesalers a day before coming to Shillong and to arrange their own vehicles with proper passes from their respective districts.
In case of remote areas where availability of transport is a problem, police trucks and vehicles may be arranged.
“To avoid people gathering together in huge numbers in Shillong, why doesn’t the government send the goods to different districts accordingly? Keeping in mind, the social distancing is not applicable at all since many of them keep on rushing and standing amongst each other within inches”, he said.
Nongrum also suggested the government to increase more groceries stores so as to enable the people to buy their commodities in a distanced manner.
“To avoid people rushing at the same time and to ease the situation, why does not the government allow the shops to open normally? So that the people will maintain the social distancing as instructed by the Central Government”, he said.
Again to ease the congestion in Shillong, Nongrum suggested the government to make transport arrangements for those people who are stranded in the city and who are willing to go back to their respective village/ native land.
For students from our neighboring States studying in Shillong who are stranded in the city, the government may arrange their transportation up to a junction from where they shall be picked up by their respective State’s officials after prior arrangement with them.
Nongrum said that the government should repeatedly make announcements at regular intervals regarding the possibilities of what this virus is capable of.
Stating that the people are neglecting the government guidelines, he said, “People should cooperate with the government and follow the government instructions. They should not take things for granted. The government should note that bringing down the body temperature temporarily is medically possible. Most often many of the people panic too much and this may lead to panic attack.
He said that the government should assure the people about the preventive measures which have been taken and ask the people to cooperate with the government in fighting this deadly virus.
“If people are asked to quarantine themselves at home but they are freely wandering around the streets then the government should even take drastic steps in order to contain such people”, he added.