TURA: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and other state and district officials have been kept busy during the last few weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a handful of other issues.
In addition to the COVID-19 crisis, flash floods caused by a cloud burst recently wreaked havoc affecting several villages under Raksamgre and Tikrikilla in West Garo Hills. The floods caused severe damage to the extent of cutting off the AMPT Road, the lifeline of the plain belt areas of West Garo Hills.
The same flood waters also washed off several bridges and major portions of roads in the area posing difficulties to the public. A quarantine centre set up in the area for returnees was also inundated in the flood prompting authorities to shift them to another location.
The chief minister along with other officials visited the site of the disaster on Monday to review the damage caused and also interacted with the affected families.
He also held a meeting with officials of the administration and other line departments where he directed the PWD (Roads) to initiate repairs and restore the damage portions of the AMPT road as soon as possible.
Following his visit to the flood affected site, Sangma also visited the corona care centre at Betasing in South West Garo Hills and reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the district in a meeting with officials of the district administration and the Health department at Ampati.
On Tuesday, the chief minister visited Baghmara in South Garo Hills and Resubelpara in North Garo Hills to take stock of the COVID-19 situation. In Baghmara, he inspected several quarantine centres and also reviewed measures being taken to prevent the spread of the virus. South Garo Hills has a total of 33 quarantine centres and 23 community quarantine centres housing a total of 120 inmates.
At Resubelpara, a few concerns were raised by the villagers during his visit to the corona care centre at ITI Campus at Daram locality. The chief minister advised them to take precautions and protect themselves while highlighting that strong leadership, capable administration and disciplined society was the need of the hour.
