PANJIM: In a fiery defence of his work as head of the government in handling the pandemic, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Monday hit out at critics during a virtual interaction with elected representatives.
Sawant, who indirectly slammed his own MLAs, spoke about how it is easy for all to give him advice but how it is the government that knows the ground reality and about financial and COVID management.
Without naming anyone, he criticised politicians trying to take advantage of the pandemic. He referred to how some had announced lockdowns of their constituencies and others had repeated media briefings asking for a lockdown.
He then spoke about municipalities and panchayats going for a lockdown and pointed to flaws in these decisions and implementations and said the government imposed restrictions should have been followed instead.
He then reiterated that the State-wide curfew that has been now imposed is stricter than a lockdown. He said after the curfew was imposed he is getting calls from the same areas where separate individual lockdowns were announced, for permissions to keep some activities like markets open.
“People keep saying there has not been a CM like this but the truth is there has not been a pandemic like this in 100 years. That time there was no social media,” he said while referring that his experience is unique as politicians and people taking potshots at him haven’t had to take the decisions he has had to take.
He, however, emphasised that he was not affected by the criticism as he is aware that there are people who have been observing the situation on the ground and have understood the decisions he has taken.
He also questioned why the same people who were targeting him have not criticised the fish markets and other markets that saw a huge crowd despite being aware of the threat of COVID and about the need to follow COVID appropriate behaviour. He said that as per the Centre, markets are to be closed and said that even if fish markets are closed for a week or so, people will survive.
The purpose of the CM’s interaction with panchas, zilla panchayat members and municipal councillors was to get them to help in implementing the government’s vaccination drive and convince those people who have symptoms to go for testing
“There are at least 2,000 elected representatives and if each one of you gets ten people to take their vaccine, we can target 20,000 people. Our aim is to ensure that people above the age of 45 are all vaccinated by June 10,” Sawant said.
When elected representatives asked him what about vaccinating many of them who are under the age of 45, Sawant said the government will take a decision to declare all elected representatives as frontline workers, which would help them get vaccinated.
The CM also made it a point to mention advice given to him by Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho, who he said had suggested starting a mobile vaccination drive.
On that note, he said this will begin in 15 days after the current vaccination phase is completed and asked panchayats and municipalities to prepare a list of people who are unable to come out. These would be people who are sick, people who are very old and persons with disabilities.
Sawant also touched upon how there is a dearth of essentials like thermometers and oximeters and in this regard said health centres have been advised to give COVID kits to all people coming for testing to ensure supply chains are not affected.
He also called on elected representatives to alert the police if they find anyone indulging in unlawful activities when it comes to either hoarding or selling such essentials. He called on the elected representatives to also work with the police to enforce the curfew.
