'Assam government's plan for migrants workers' livelihood is ready

Skills Mission will help those who decide to stay back'

Amid rising COVID positive cases, the Assam government is not just increasing the number of quarantine facilities across the state and preparing a battery of people to ensure those returning to the State follow home quarantine norms, the State government has also put in place a plan to help all those migrant workers who would like to stay back.

Kumar Sanjay Krishna, Chief Secretary, Assam spoke exclusively to the sentinelassam.com.

Sentinel Assam: Assam is expecting another 12 lakh people to return back, while the number of COVID positive cases are rising and maximum of these positive cases are people who have returned to the state recently. How prepared is the government machinery to handle this kind of an influx?

Kumar Sanjay Krishna: Fifteen days back we never expected this will happen. When the migrants workers started coming in they were put in quarantine and the numbers have increased so we are really worried. We will get large number of people, like 12 lakh as mentioned by the Health minister coming in and there will be a lot of people who will test positive so we need really large infrastructure to quarantine these people. That is the big issue at hand right now. We are trying to get as many budget hotels and various other places all over Assam, all district headquarters to increase the temporary quarantine facilities like Sarusajai. What we are also trying to do is if a person shows no symptoms after four days then send the person to home quarantine. There will be somebody in charge of that area, ward or police station, preferably a police officer in Guwahati, in other places it will be a civil officer and the Nagrik Samiti of every police station who will monitor. We will also put people from NGOs, NSS, Red Cross so that they can keep track of people in home quarantine.

There was some confusion like what happens if in one apartment there is one positive case or somebody is quarantined. So, in that case that house or the family will be quarantined and not the whole building. Another confusion was about what if someone in an industry or factory tests positive. We will not close down the factory or the industry but the place where he stays and the particular area where he worked would become a containment zone.

Sentinel Assam: There is a lot of concern among the industry regarding the lockdown norms and continuing with their economic activities. Any further steps being taken to address some of these concerns?

Kumar Sanjay Krishna: Immediately after the first round of lockdown we allowed agriculture activities, rural economy was allowed and now industrial activities have been allowed with certain instructions like maintaining social distancing norms and the industries have given undertakings that they will follow norms and we have made the owner or the head of the institution or organisation responsible to ensure compliance. I think the economy is coming back on track but after 60 days of lockdown it is very difficult to immediately get back on track but I am sure things will get better after few days. But again, the next 10 days will be crucial because after May 31 we have to see how things shape up, what happens.

Sentinel Assam: What is likely to happen post May 31? The number of positive in all likelihood would go up.

Kumar Sanjay Krishna: These types of decisions are taken after a lot of consultations. First at the national level there will be a review, all Chief Ministers will speak to the Prime Minister. The Ministry of Home will then take a decision and the on the basis of that considering the local conditions we will take a view on what should be done. But the only solution I see is co-existence. One has to live with COVID till a vaccine is found. But we have to be very careful. In the last few days, we have seen that people are becoming careful and conscious.

Sentinel Assam: About the migrant workers who are coming back to the state. Any further steps being planned to take care of their livelihood?

Kumar Sanjay Krishna: There are two things, all those who have started coming in will have to go through the medical screening and quarantine process. This may take 15, 20 or 28 days. Secondly, there would be a large number of people who would like to go back to their places of work. Some people would decide to stay back. We have got the phone numbers of all these people. Assam State Skill Development Mission, they have got all the details of these people. We will be sending all those people wanting to stay back, a link. They have to fill forms mentioning about the skills they have and what are the skills they would like to improve. Assam Skill Development Mission will have some programmes and a month or two months course on different skills, we have identified about 50 skills and this will be done free of cost by the Government of Assam. Once they complete, they will be given certificates and the industry associations would be informed about these skilled workers.

Sentinel Assam: Is the Assam government further ramping up the testing facilities and the number of tests being done?

Kumar Sanjay Krishna: In February the only testing facility we had was ICMR, Lahowal and that also was capable of doing few tests. Today we have 7 medical colleges all with capacities and facilities to test. Now we have a capacity to conduct 40,000 tests. From our initial capacity of may be 10 tests a day now we can do 2000 test every day. Ideal will be if we can do 5000 tests a day so that we can take care of the people coming in. We are increasing our testing facilities in a systematic manner and in another 20 days or so we should be able to ramp up further.

Sentinel Assam: Do you feel that all that is being done now like increasing the testing facilities or the infrastructure could have been done earlier or is it that things happened so suddenly that now the Government is doing what needs to be done as things are happening?

Kumar Sanjay Krishna: We never expected that it would come to India and become this big an issue. Maybe about a month back we probably just had about 30 cases and that remained stagnant for a long time. And then there is a spike now. Some times certain things happen and you do not expect those things would happen. Like the migrants' issue, we never expected it would become such a big issue. A large number of people coming back. But I think the state has done a great job, the health department has done a great job. Taking care of so many people suddenly. From zero it has just shot up. We have to go step by step and we are doing all that it takes.

Everyone should be worried at this point of time. Everyone has to follow the norms, wear masks, maintain hygiene. Lockdown cannot be there forever. We will have to co-exist but to be safe and stay away from COVID each one of us have to follow social distancing norms, wear masks and maintain hygiene.