Former Minister and prominent Congress MLA K. Ranjit has flayed the BJP-led coalition government in Manipur for ever-changing policies and lack of cohesion. He said Manipur may soon become a red zone from green zone because of these flaws in tackling COVID-19 threat.
Students and other activists say that over 50,000 Manipuris are residing in other States for education, medical treatment, business, employment, etc. In view of the pandemic, almost all of them want to return home. Hospital work in Kolkata and other cities are severely affected as most of the Manipuri nurses quit jobs over health concerns.
The body temperature of the returnees is scanned at Jiribam and Mao in Jiribam and Senapati districts. All the returnees are lodged in institutional quarantine centres. After two days or so, they are examined again in the community quarantine centres. Body temperature can be normalised by taking pills available in local pharmacies.
It would be dangerous if a person is certified as COVID-19-free merely on the basis of body temperature, Mr. Ranjit warned.
He further said that ₹200 was sanctioned per day per returnee and inmate for the day’s breakfast, potable water bottle and two meals. Some MLAs have spurned the pittance, saying that relief committees set up by some of them will pay the meal bills. He said that the government must either pay the entire meal bills or ask the MLAs concerned to arrange to pay out of their funds.
Meanwhile, 16 persons, including a 23-day-old infant, were found COVID-19-positive in Manipur on Wednesday. Fourteen of them had come from Chennai in a government-sponsored train. They are residents of Churachandpur district. The remaining are from Imphal east district.
