Saturday, 04 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Amid arrival of the highly contagious Omicron variety of the Covid-19 in India and expected third wave of the pandemic, the Uttarakhand government has come into an alert mode. The health, higher education and cooperatives minister Dhan Singh Rawat talked with Gajendra Singh Negi of The Pioneer on the government preparations on Covid-19, ambitious Ghasiyari Kalyan scheme and politics. Here are the excerpts.
Omicron has arrived in the country and chances are that the third wave could hit the country soon. What are our preparations?
We have asked the administration to keep a vigil on those who are arriving from other states. Random checking has started in the border check posts, airports, railway stations and bus stands. I have directed the health department to conduct at least 25,000 tests every day so that the cases of the disease don’t remain undetected. As a safety measure our government has decided to conduct tests of all the doctors, health workers, police personnel and other frontline workers. I have directed that tests of all the personnel being deployed on the VIP duty should be done at their respective place of posting and before their departure for duty.
To detect new variants of Covid-19, genome sequencing facility is needed which at present is not available in Uttarakhand. What is your plan?
We have started this facility in the laboratory of the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) and soon genome sequencing will be done in all the government medical colleges of the state. It will save time. I have directed the authorities to ensure that MRI facility is available in all government medical colleges as well.
In the wake of the increasing cases of Covid-19, the parents of the students are concerned as the colleges and universities are open now. What would you say to assure them?
Our government has directed all the Chief Medical Officers (CMO) to submit a report on Covid-19. The report is expected in a couple of days and based on it we will take a decision whether the universities and colleges would remain open or not. We have already said that the students who don’t want to come to the colleges would not be forced and for then online classes would be held.
You had promised that all the students of the government colleges would be provided with tablets. When will this promise be fulfilled?
About 1.10 lakh tablets would be provided to the students of the government colleges. We have already floated tenders for it and if it does not materialise soon we are ready to transfer the amount of Tablet into the bank accounts of the students.
PCC president Ganesh Godiyal has strongly objected to the word Ghasyari in the Yojana launched by Home Minister Amit Shah recently. What is your view?
Ghasyari scheme is a path breaking scheme for the welfare of women in the rural and semi urban areas of the state. We are providing nutritious fodder for the cattle under it and we are also providing a handy kit for them. It would save the time the womenfolk used to spend in collecting fodder for the cattle. It would also save them from attacks by wild animals and other accidents. They can now spend the time saved in increasing their family income and proper upbringing of their children. I don’t want to react to what the PCC president has said but want to inform that more than 18,000 applications have already been received under the scheme which includes many women from the native village of PCC president.
The Congress is claiming that since BJP is losing the elections PM Modi and other leaders have increased the number of visits to Uttarakhand. What is your opinion?
The BJP is all set to score a landslide victory in the upcoming assembly polls. The PM is coming here with a gift of projects worth thousands of Crores similarly leaders such as Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Jyotiraditya Sindhia and Mansukh Mandavia had given important projects to the state during their visits. Our leaders are not like that of the Congress party who used to come to the state for picnics.
