SHILLONG: Residents of many containment zones in the city have not received any essential items for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.
Soon after the announcement of containment zones, the East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner had informed about formation of teams to provide essential items and facilitate medical requirements.
However, a volunteer, who is part of Mawlai Nongpdeng Dorbar, said on Tuesday that after the area was declared a containment zone, the daily wage earners were facing difficulty as no assistance was provided by the district administration.
“As children in the containment zone require milk, we had to stop a milk van on the road to facilitate the supply and no one from the district administration helped us”, the volunteer identified as Kiewshaphrang Kharnaior said.
According to the volunteer, the residents in the containment zone will be requiring essentials as it was only at 11 am on Saturday 11 that the area was declared containment zone after which nobody was allowed to come out.
“The district administration may have presumed that since the lockdown was announced for three days, the residents may have already stored essentials but this is not the case of all”, he said.
Kharnaior added that though nobody from the team of DC visited the area, the local MLA took up the issues concerning the daily wage workers in the containment zones with the authorities.
He also wondered as to why the entire Mawlai Nongpdeng area was declared containment zone whereas only the compound of the doctor who was affected should have been declared as restricted.
The volunteers, who were manning the Mawlai Umjaiur containment zone, said that other than small assistance from the Dorbar, the residents are yet to get any help from others.
“We have not seen anyone from the district administration”, they said.
There are two positive cases in the area – an elderly person and the lady, Shianivia Wahlang who had self- declared as positive. They are in a corona care centre.
In Mawbah (Barapathar) which was declared a containment zone after a woman died of COVID, a surveillance team only collected the names of the residents. There was no help from the district administration other than some assistance from the Dorbar Shnong. The area has neither been sanitised nor has any “contact” been tested so far.
Earlier on Monday, a family living near the Harrison Bridge leading to Rilbong had also narrated the same plight.
When contacted, the East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner M War said that the district administration had a meeting with all the headmen on Tuesday and there were no issues.
“They are all in touch with the magistrates… No one has complained at all”, she added.