Editor,
As a concerned citizen I am baffled to hear that certain localities in our dear State that have decided to make themselves a containment zone for whatsoever reasons they have thought of. I want to shed light that construction workers who were staying in the State since way before the lockdown in March are discriminated upon and restricted from going to their workplaces. Kudos to the people of Laban who have now restricted “non-local” construction workers and finally realised that noise is a pollution! (ST report May 9, 2020) Most of the essential stores are run by “non-locals” so are they restricted too? Where did they come from was what you asked? They are our next door neighbours who just like many who have been out of jobs are staying inside our homes. I thank the Government for allowing them to resume their work again to be able to fend for themselves in any small way they can. I believe it’s important for people to understand that all of us are probable carriers of the virus. I may have the virus and you may have it too. When I distance myself from others it is because I may have the virus and I need to make sure I don’t spread it and also the other person may have it. When we distance ourselves from others do understand that we’re really distancing ourselves from the virus. However, we all may be ill with the virus due to herd immunity.
A larger percentage recovered from this illness and only a small percentage having co-morbidity succumb to it. Rather than focusing on who will bring the virus to us can we focus on building our immunity and practising hand hygiene and be responsible with our own behaviour? The rich might stay rich and still have a comfortable life but the poor are getting poorer. We cannot be under lockdown forever and we need to all come out of our houses and we need to go to work and we will be travelling from one locality to another. I don’t know how localities can ban others from coming in when they have zero cases and have not been defined as a containment zones. It is nobody’s fault for being a patient recovering from Covid19 nor is it their fault for being a carrier. What we are doing is making the fear of the disease larger than the disease itself. And that in itself has a number repercussions. As a society can we be more empathetic and compassionate and help each other in fighting this pandemic. I hope this will push the government to look into such decisions made by concerned localities.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request
Via email
Our myopic national media
Editor,
The North Eastern region is virtually millions of miles away for millions of Indians in other parts of the country even now and all because of our so called myopic “national media.” In the fight against the Corona pandemic , the NE region has shown exemplary performance while the rest of the country is by and large in the thralls of COVID19 . After the discharge of the lone patient in Mizoram ,all the five states Manipur ,Nagaland ,Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh have become COVID19 free.
The Assam Government, especially the Health Minister has been way ahead of his counterparts in most other states in planning and executing COVID19 containment strategies in the state despite being hamstrung by economic compulsions. Assam government has been successful in flattening the curve and breaking the chain. All the positive cases have been traced and quarantined successfully, thereby minimizing the possibilities of social contamination. Now the throat and nasal swab testing is being carried out vigorously and the whole medical, paramedical and ancillary staff have been put into service on a war footing giving the citizens a feeling of security against the dreaded disease. The recent spurt in positive COVID-19 cases in the state is due only to the people stranded in other states due to the lockdown and have now returned home. In comparison, West Bengal is like a dormant volcano which can erupt any time.
There is no talk show or coverage by the digital media on the NE while insane people in different so called advanced places have been attacking students from the region, calling them Chinese, spitting on them and vilifying them disparagingly. This blatant injustice to citizens of NE by others continues even while ironically the Prime Minister himself wears our Gamosa, the symbol of Assamese pride, on important occasions. In the global fight against COVID19, our region can proudly say that it has contributed significantly.
Commercial production of the anti malarial drug chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine in large amounts was first developed in a plant designed in the North East Institute of Science and Technology, the erstwhile Regional Research Laboratory. It was the scientists in the RRL including Dr KV Raghavan, Dr PG Rao and Dr BN Goswami who developed the basic design and new technology in 1981-82 which enabled the Bengal Immunity Company to produce 80 tons of hydroxychloroquine annually from a meager 4 tons .
No national media has carried out any exhaustive reporting from this region on the development activities taking place silently and contributing immensely towards the nation. The media houses on the other hand , always highlight the region for the wrong reasons whenever something untoward happens like that of insurgency related violence or disasters like floods that create havoc annually. The national media orchestrated a high decibel outcry the moment the long awaited NRC final draft was published in Assam on August 31, 2019. Most of them are pathetically un aware about the ground realities in the region; how the prospect of losing their identities like the indigenous people of Tripura looming large. They are not aware that Assam has generously given space for millions of foreigners that had entered and illegally settled in the state prior to midnight of March 21, 1971. Instead the media houses took up the cause of the 19 lakhs foreigners who failed to enter into the NRC for lack of any documents while overlooking the sentiments and justified demands of the people of Assam and even tried to veto a national agenda monitored by the Supreme Court of India.
Yours etc.,
Manoj Kumar Borthakur,
Sivasagar.