SHILLONG: Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Committee on Estimates on Friday said the government was doing commendable work in the fight against COVID-19 although there have been lapses.
The Committee had summoned the departments of Health, Finance, Food & Civil Supplies and Labour to discuss the government’s preparedness in dealing with the pandemic.
Following the meeting, the Committee chairperson, Thomas A Sangma, told media persons that it is satisfied with the action plans of the four departments for both COVID and post-COVID situation.
Sangma stated that the action plans are ‘very impressive’ and added, “The government is doing an impressive task of containing COVID-19.”
He added the committee is concerned about the financial impact of the pandemic. “Our objective for calling the meeting was to understand and know if the people of the state benefited from all the plans or activities related to controlling the situation,” he said.
However, Sangma mentioned there were certain lapses in the distribution of food under schemes like the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme even as he stated that a lot of people have not been able to avail the benefits due to some criteria or because they could not be identified.
He stated that the departments will have to take more active measures in this regard.
On other issues, he stated that the state government is ‘very proactive’, and its efforts have been commendable.