SHILLONG: Will Meghalaya see another lockdown? What’s the mood of the Meghalayans? Lockdown has become the new buzzword of the town after state government hinted that it may resort to another lockdown in the state if the situation pertaining to COVID-19 does not improve.
To gauze the public mood, The Shillong Times caught up with some citizens. It seems that people in the state who are yet to recover from the long lockdown, were dreading the idea of another phase of lockdown. They also shared their thoughts about how to contain the pandemic.
Former Home Minister, RG Lyngdoh appreciated the government’s letter to the Centre requesting them to restrict the inter-state movement of military and paramilitary forces for the moment in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As regards lockdown, he advocated for a careful study of the ground reality. Instead, he had a few suggestions for the government.
He felt that after seeing the positive role Dorbar Shnongs had been playing, there was a case for decentralising the authority and responsibility, for tackling the pandemic. He wanted more power at the Dorbar level.
“A proper protocol will need to be put in place to coordinate their role with the roles of the Health and Police departments and the district administration for better understanding, smoother functioning and to avoid duplication wherever possible,” he added.
Dr. Synrang Batngen Warjri, an Interventional Cardiologist working in the city, believes that a lockdown will not help anymore and it will cause too much economic distress to the people.
“Many are losing their jobs and it’s slowly pushing them into depression. At our hospital we are seeing a rise in depression and other psychological and mental illness that are directly related to this lockdown,” he said.
According to Dr. Warjri, there is a perceptible increase in the number of cases with suicidal thoughts, adding that the aim of the lockdown was to prepare the health machinery for the pandemic by slowing down the number of cases and at this point, the purpose of the lockdown has been achieved.
“What we need at this point is strict social distancing. It is the only way forward until we get a vaccine or herd immunity, whichever come first and at the moment inter-state travel for people including armed forces must be restricted,” he said.
ED Nongsiang, a retired teacher in the city, was of the opinion that instead of imposing the lockdown again, government should be more strict at the entry and exit points besides being strict with issuing of transit passes especially outside the state.
“The return of the armed personnel from outside the state should be stopped immediately especially those with family and lastly government should enforce strict protocol and SOPs,” he said.
Echoing similar views, the Rangbah Shnong of Bishnupur, Sebastian Swett said that at the moment, there is no urgency to go for another lockdown as it would affect everybody including daily wage earners and small time workers.
“We are still suffering from the last lockdown and the economy has been affected,” he said even as he maintained that the inter-state movement of armed forces must be kept at the minimum.
A teacher-cum-cricketer, Gideon Kharkongor, too maintained that lockdown at the moment was not desirable as there was no proven case of any community transmission of COVID-19 in the state.
He too opined that inter-state movement should be better monitored and strict protocols should be followed in offices, markets, streets with no large gathering to stop the spread of virus. Besides, community vigilance has to be there to ensure that unregistered returnees do not enter the state.
