SHILLONG: Residents of Umpling are allegedly having to pay a price for COVID infection among BSF personnel in their camp in the area with even doctors refusing them treatment fearing they too might be carrying the dreaded virus.
Expressing concern over such stigmatisation of people of the area, Rangbah Shnong of Umpling, Sanwat F Pyngrope, on Wednesday clarified that COVID-19 positive cases were confined to the BSF campus and not outside while alleging that a few hospitals have denied treatment to some people from the locality.
The BSF camp has been declared a containment zone.
Asked to substantiate his allegations, Pyngrope said that there have been two instances when people from Umpling locality, who went to two hospitals, were denied treatment.
“In one case, one person went for ultra sound to one of the hospitals and after being denied treatment, the person went to another,” he said while adding that in another case, the General Secretary of the Shnong had to intervene.
He said people are under the wrong impression that the entire Umpling locality is a containment zone whereas it is only the BSF camp that has been sealed in view of a number of cases among the inmates.
He informed that last week, random testing was conducted in the area and only one person, who is the wife of a BSF personnel, tested positive for COVID-19.
Echoing similar views, local MLA David Nongrum said that he was informed by the Dorbar Shnong that even people from the area working as domestic help or at construction sites were being stigmatised.
“People from other areas should not be scared of people from this locality as everything is normal outside the BSF camp,” he said.
He also said that they would take up the matter of denial of treatment to the people of the locality with the Health minister and request him to issue necessary directives to the hospitals to provide treatment to each and every one.
“People have been driven out from hospitals. Helpers working in other localities like RR colony and Rynjah have been asked to stay home,” Pyngrope said.
“It is very sad that people hailing from Umpling are more often than not are being stigmatised now,” he said.
Pyngrope said, “Even though the BSF camp is in Umpling no one is allowed to either enter it or exit as it has been declared a containment zone, not the whole of Umpling which is spread over 574 acres”.
Requesting people not to indulge in stigmatisation, he said,” Recently we carried out the Rapid Antigen test and only one person tested positive and shifted to a quarantine centre”.
