Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna held meet focuses on uninterrupted supply of essential commodities

A Correspondent

Tezpur: Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam, Kumar Sanjay Krishna on Tuesday held a high-level review meeting with the Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of five districts of Sonitpur, Biswanath, Nagaon, Darrang and Udalguri. The meeting held at the conference hall of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tezpur, Sonitpur district was attended by Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, Additional Chief Secretaries Jishnu Baruah, S Abbassi, IGP, Special Branch, Assam Police Hiren Nath, CK Bhuyan, ACS and OSD to CS among others.

At the very outset, the Chief Secretary lauded the initiatives taken by the district administration in view of the prevailing situation due to COVID-19 and enforcing the lockdown in the respective areas. Among the chief issues discussed in the meeting were the steps taken by the Food, Civil Supplies departments of each district to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential commodities and home delivery of items to the people. The Chief Secretary directed all Deputy Commissioners to prepare a plan beforehand in order to avoid any crisis of food items keeping in mind the probability of floods during the upcoming monsoon season. He also asked the Deputy Commissioners to ensure full preparedness and pull up all line departments engaged in pre and post flood management such as the PHE, Veterinary, Agriculture, among others to be well-prepared to deal with any eventuality.

In view of the suspected swine fever cases in certain districts of the State, he also asked the Deputy Commissioners to be prepared to deal with the situation and take necessary precautions where possible. The Chief Secretary also asked the DCs to make an assessment of loss faced by people in the rural areas who are dependent on these piggeries.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said the police should work towards strictly enforcing the lockdown as per directives issued by the Government of India and at the same time help to facilitate the people falling under the exempted categories as decided by the government. The DGP asked all officials to ensure that doctors, nurses and other health workers were not harassed during this period and to initiate strict action against anyone found doing so.

The meeting discussed other issues related to inter-district travel, distribution of ration under SNP, availability of food stock under NFSA schemes, proper distribution of essential food items to NFSA card holders and priority household card owners, paddy procurement by FCI, issue of migrant labourers, various law and order related topics, among others.

Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna also addressed media persons at the end of the review meeting along with DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta and Deputy Commissioner of Sonitpur, Manvendra Pratap Singh. He later visited Tezpur Medical College and Hospital and reviewed the infrastructure put in place for dealing with COVID-19 patients and also interacted with the doctors and senior administrators of the hospital.

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