TURA, July 22: The three-day Budget session of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC), which was scheduled from July 27, has been indefinitely postponed after the CEM and chairman of the GHADC tested positive for COVID-19 and were put under home quarantine.
A notification in this regard was issued by GHADC chairman, Rakesh A Sangma, who was tested positive for the virus earlier this week.
GHADC CEM, Benedic R Marak, who was due to lead the treasury benches in presenting the Council budget, has also been put under home quarantine after reportedly testing positive for the virus.
Along with Marak, his adviser and BJP worker, Akki Sangma, has also been infected with COVID-19 and placed under quarantine while another non-elected member, Rudraswar Momin, appointed as chairman of the High-Powered Committee, has been asked to quarantine and get tested as all three happen to be each other’s contact.
The GHADC pro tem has not elected a deputy chairman to conduct the House in the absence of the chairman during the session.
The normal practice is for the deputy chairman to be elected from the opposition benches, a courtesy that has long been discarded by successive executive committees.
Tura’s response to vax continues to be lukewarm
Tura town, despite being the centre of Garo Hills with the highest density in population, is still lagging behind when it comes to getting vaccinated against COVID-19. The reluctance is leading to high infection rates and claiming many lives.
A near total of the deaths from COVID has been attributed to non-vaccination.
While COVID vaccination centres in Tura have been getting a lacklustre response from many of the public, back in the rural areas people are making a beeline to get inoculated.
Queues stretching for a hundred metres have been witnessed in some of the plain-belt areas of the district as men and women jostle for space to get a vaccination slot.
Nearer home, villagers from Babadam area of Rongram have become a sort of inspiration and set an example to many city-dwellers, giving a snub to the naysayers and Covidiots.
Babadam tribal village on Thursday set a record with 217 villagers getting vaccinated on a single day. The numbers were so high that medical teams had to conduct three separate sessions — at Gambarigre, Ampanggre and Buripara villages, all under Babadam health centre jurisdiction.
