SHILLONG: Opposition leader and former chief minister, Mukul Sangma, has suggested several measures for bringing back students and migrant workers from the state who are stranded elsewhere in the country following imposition of lockdown.
In a letter to the chief secretary on Saturday, Sangma said that details of all the students and migrant workers should be immediately compiled.
He also said that a dedicated team with contact numbers under respective District Disaster Management Authority should be constituted for the parents and relatives or NGOs to provide the details.
“The parents, relatives or NGOs should be requested 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” , he said.
He also asked the government to form a dedicated team, which should include qualified and appropriate persons to extend necessary counselling, under the respective District Disaster Management Authority who should establish contact with the stranded people and/or their parents.
“A dedicated toll free number for necessary counselling should be created for the affected people to call and provide psychological support,” the Opposition leader said.
He added that a comprehensive plan for bringing back the stranded students and migrant workers should be prepared immediately and submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs, for smooth co-ordination with the counterpart states.
He said that the plan can include advance and immediate action to be taken for identifying and creation of accommodation in every district to house the stranded students and migrant workers upon arrival in their respective districts where all the stringent guidelines in respect of self-quarantine, arrangement for proper food and counselling are ensured.
He said there can also be a dedicated train service arranged only for the stranded students and migrant workers for their evacuation till the nearest station/rail head, including Mendipathar railway station, with proper food arrangement and stringent social and physical distancing norms during the time of travel.
For students and inter-district migrant workers stranded in Shillong and other parts of the state, he said that a similar arrangement needs 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.
“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,” he said.
