SHILLONG: Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui has defended the state government’s decision not to throw open the interstate border, overruling the direction issued in this regard by the Union government recently.
He said status quo on restrictions of entry of outsiders would be maintained for now keeping in view the surging COVID cases in the state.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Thursday, Rymbui said the state government would not take chances with spread of COVID by lifting the existing restrictions to entry of people from outside. He however said that the matter would be reviewed next month.
It may be mentioned that the Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on August 22 wrote to all state chief secretaries stating that there should be no restrictions on inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods and that any such restriction amounts to a violation of guidelines issued by MHA.
The state governments were told to do away with entry pass system both for passenger and goods movement into the state.
The idea has not found favour with the Meghalaya government and it has decided to go ahead with its earlier decision of the closure of six entry points into the state from midnight of August 31 up to September 7 considering the fatigue of the staff manning the check gates at the entry points and their being away from their families for a considerable time.
This essentially implies that there would be complete stoppage of movement of passengers from outside the state during the first week of every month for three consecutive months.
Rymbui further stated, “The Union government will soon be declaring Unlock 4.0 and this seven-day intervening period will give us enough time to introspect and reframe our policies as to what sectors will be unlocked without increasing the number of COVID positive cases. We don’t want to take hasty decisions and have to lockdown again just as Assam had to do with three districts. If we take decisions to unlock they must be based on good rationale.”
Preparations for holding UGC tests
Rymbui, who also holds the Education portfolio, also stated that following the Supreme Court order that UGC should conduct exams by September end, the state has to be prepared to relocate the Corona Care centres/quarantine centres based in colleges and the NEHU campus so that they are duly sanitised before reopening for the examinations.
“We have to be prepared to conduct the NEET exams because if we don’t there are lobbies that would want to disrupt these exams and push in candidates into medical institutes based on their Class XII marks which is not a good idea. Besides, we in Meghalaya have no choice but for our aspirants to sit for the NEET and JEE entrance exams or lose a year. That they cannot afford to do. Of course we will have to follow the norms of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and we believe they will take all precautions to ensure there is adequate social distancing. What we don’t want is to be caught unprepared,” Rymbui said.
He also shared his concerns about this long educational lockout stating that there was complete stagnation of the mind of youth. “In the rural areas and even in the city quite a few young people have fallen into marital alliances before their time for want to any productive activity. We will have to do a study to see how COVID is affecting our youth,” the minister said.