GUWAHATI, May 17: In a special initiative, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) has set up emergency COVID aid cells with helplines across the 20 districts of Assam to cater to the needs of COVID positive patients and their families by arranging food, medicine and oxygen for them.
The districts where the regional party has set up these cells are Kamrup Metro, Kamrup Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Darrang, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Nalbari, Jorhat, Hojai, Bongaigaon, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Morigaon, Baksa, Biswanath, Sadiya, Dhubri, Bajali and Nagaon.
Moreover, the regional party has also decided to help people confined in containment zones by engaging its members (also called jatiya sewaks) to arrange the requisite essentials such as groceries and medicine for them.
Addressing reporters here on Monday, AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi informed that the emergency COVID aid cells would also provide medicine to senior citizens who cannot leave their homes in view of the restrictions in place.
“We appeal to the administration and the government to allow our jatiya sewaks to cater to these needy sections in the midst of the COVID surge,” Gogoi said.
The regional party has also initiated measures to set up a plasma bank to cater to the COVID patients in need of plasma donors.
“The party has already launched a special website, https://plasmafinder.assamjatiyaparishad.com, where recovered symptomatic COVID patients with RT-PCR negative reports can register for plasma donation,” he said.
The AJP president also appealed to the state government to provide offline registration for vaccination.
“Besides, we appeal to the government to arrange door-to-door vaccination for elderly people who cannot move out of their homes,” Gogoi said.
He further requested the government to provide an economic package, in the event of a lockdown, for daily wage labourers and lower income groups as well as initiate a process to arrange sale of farmers’ produce.
“The state government should also bring in a regulation whereby the amount charged for COVID treatment by private healthcare centres is regulated. Besides, we appeal to the people to undergo COVID tests because it is only through rigorous testing that we can track and treat patients,” Gogoi added.
The regional party had recently submitted a memorandum to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for providing free mass COVID-19 vaccination programme to the citizens.
The party appealed to the state government to work out a detailed plan for offline registration through the panchayat system and ground-level health workers so that the poor and illiterate people are also covered under the universal free vaccination drive.
