COVID-19: 5 Out Of 8 Northeast States Are Coronavirus Free

NEW DELHI: Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh on Monday said that five out of the eight states in the North-East are corona-free now.

#Northeast Video Conference meeting: 5 out of 8 States #Corona free while other 3 have not added any new Corona positive case in the last few days.CMs,State Govts, Northeast Ministry/DoNER, North Eastern Council deserve appreciation for perfect coordination to make this possible. pic.twitter.com/wDVJmSSLyq

— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) April 27, 2020

He said that those five states are – Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.

“Three states in the region – Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram – are not corona-free but there have been no new positive cases in these states in the recent past,” Singh said.

Elaborating further, Dr Singh said that while Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura are totally Corona free, the remaining north-east states of Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram had 8, 11 and 1 Corona positive cases respectively, which are waiting to become negative, while no new cases were added till last night.

He congratulated the State governments of the North-Eastern region, their Chief Ministers and also the officials in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and North Eastern Council (NEC) for ensuring perfect coordination, which had made this possible.

“Even during this emergency, the way the air cargo was operational in bringing supplies to the region, there was no shortage in the area of essential goods. From March 30 onwards, supplies kept reaching the region through Air India and the Indian Air Force. It was Prime Minister Modi’s directive that the North-East, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and island areas of the country be given priority,” Dr Singh said.

“The governments in all eight North-eastern states have worked hard and collaborated with the Centre during this crisis. The North-East Development Council which is headquartered in Shillong has done an excellent job of coordination during this period,” he added.

Dr Singh also informed about the proposals received and under consideration from the different North-Eastern States like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur for new health-related projects devoted to the management of infections and Corona care, critical care and upgraded healthcare.

These projects will be dealt with priority, he said. In addition, he informed that the Ministry of DoNER had placed Rs 25 crore at the disposal of North Eastern States in the initial stage itself, much before the lockdown, as gap-funding for corona related activities.

During the meeting, Dr Jitendra Singh also received an update about various economic activities in the recent days in the exempted areas, as per the Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines, which primarily included the Bamboo related activities.

Briefing the media, Dr Singh expressed satisfaction that whereas in the last six years, under Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modi, Northeast has emerged as a model of developmental transformation, in the wake of the present COVID crisis, it has emerged as a model of effective, diligent and disciplined health management.

The video conference was attended by senior officers from North Eastern Council (NEC) Shillong as well representatives of different government bodies and PSUs including North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMC), North East Handicraft & Handloom Development Corporation (NEHHDC), North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi), Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) etc participated from their respective places.

from League of India