Deputy Commissioner of Baksa, Ranjan Sarma spoke exclusively to The Sentinel Assam

With comparatively less resources and almost nil infrastructure, Baksa is one of the districts of Assam which is still growing. Amid such constraints, Ranjan Sarma,

Deputy Commissioner of Baksa and his team handled over 9,000 returnees and thousands of COVID positive patients. Sarma shared how he managed all of these in his interview with The Sentinel Assam. Here are excerpts
from the interview.

Sentinel Assam: How has the past few months been for you? How have you as the Deputy Commissioner of Baksa managed to overcome the challenges?

Ranjan Sarma: Baksa is one of the four districts of the Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts and compared to the other districts of Assam, it is much less advanced. We have some resource problems, we have infrastructure problems. We basically started out late in all these matters and once this Covid-19 started we being a border district we were asked to set up screening camps at the international border with Bhutan and Darranga. We have other two points, one at the Simlaguri going on the road to Nganglam, and there's another point at Manas National Park through which you can enter Bhutan. So we were initially asked to setup Medical Training Camps there and that was sometime around the end of January and gradually when the Covid-19 developed and the pandemic spread, we sealed the borders. After that we had to have mobile medical camps and gradually our activities increased. We have a large population of young boys and girls who are working outside. Outside means in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra as well as Gujarat, Haryana. The Government of Assam had set up this Assam Cares Outreach Programme by which they were provided financial assistance monthly. We had almost around 19,000 people from our district who had registered under this programme. And out of this almost 9,000 people came back to the district once the lockdown restrictions were erased. We had to accommodate them in quarantine centres. We had about 36 quarantine centres at one point. With the full capacity of around 2,200 and these people have to be brought here, they had to be tested, kept there for 14 days. And only after they tested negative they were allowed to go home. So this was a huge task for us. We have three subdivisions – Tamulpur, Salbari and Mushalpur. We at one time had around 1,500 people and the medical staff here, of course, we had shortage of doctors and other para-medical stuff. But even then we carried on with them and somehow we managed with the best of efforts from all, the police, the health workers as well as the Civil Administration. We were able to cope with these people. Gradually, the number of people coming from outside have gone down and today we have only about 100 people in the quarantine centres. But the focus as you know has now shifted from quarantine centres to Covid care centres, because we now have started having Covid positive cases. We were one of the last districts to have positive cases. Now we have around 1,000 positive cases out of which about 370 are active. The rest have been cured and discharged from the Covid care centres. But one of the high points of this entire exercise is that we did not have an ICU in the Civil Hospital. In fact, we did not have an ICU in the entire district to take care of people in the hospitals. So, with the coming of COVID and with the support the National Health and Safety Unit, we are now in the process of setting up an ICU here, a five-seater ICU in the Civil Hospital, which will be ready by the end of this month. We are now much better equipped to deal with the critical cases.

Sentinel Assam: Going forward what is the strategy going to be in COVID care?

Ranjan Sarma: We have now shifted our focus from quarantine centres to Covid care centres because we are having a large number of positive cases at the moment. Since beginning of June we now have around 1700 cases, positive cases. Out of which we have around 370 active cases at the moment. Accommodating these people in the Civil Hospital as well as three other model hospitals, we have a total capacity of around 180 to 200 beds for Covid patients. And in view of the shortage of beds, sometimes when we have a larger number of people testing positive, we have often requested Kamrup District to accommodate them in their Covid Care Centres. Amingaon has converted a large number of places into Covid Care Centres and they have been very helpful to us. They have accommodated our people there. We have also been undertaking an intensive round of testing. A rapid antigen test. Around 2,600 people were tested on a single day. This of course, also resulted in more people testing positive. And we are taking care of them. Infrastructure wise we have sufficient facilities at the moment, but in case we have a higher number of people testing positive then maybe probably we will have to turn to Guwahati or Barpeta for helping us to accommodate these people. But as of now, we are quite comfortable.

Sentinel Assam: What about the primary healthcare facilities in the rural areas not just for COVID but non-COVID patients as well?

Ranjan Sarma: As I was saying, we did not have an intensive care unit in the entire district. And now we are in a position where we have a five-seater ICU in the Civil Hospital and apart from that, we are getting more doctors here. Initially we had less doctors, but now our staff strength has been augmented. We also have nurses, multi-purpose workers are ASHA workers and other paramedics who are doing a very good job and I think that the Covid-19 has created an awareness on health issues in the entire district. People are much more aware. The entire District Administration is now much more involved. We will be able to address all other health issues as well.

Sentinel Assam: Farmers, artisans, small traders and all those returnees who are now out of job are going through difficult times. What are the plans there?

Ranjan Sarma: Around 80 to 90% of the people are involved in agricultural activities and you will be surprised to know that we have a lot of progressive farmers who are innovative. We have some people here who are going in for strawberry cultivation, something which is very new to the district. People are going for watermelons here and I have found that the watermelons here are the tastiest among all the watermelons that I have tasted anywhere in the state, the strawberries also. So during this time during the lockdown period, these people have a very difficult time in selling their produce in getting to the market. It was in such a situation that they were just giving away their produce for pittance. The strawberries which they used to sell for 400 rupees in the market, they were selling it for 100 rupees in the local market that too to whoever used to come and get it. And major part of the produce was left unsold and it was rotting. So, we had asked the Agriculture Department to set up the market linkages. Now they have been provided motor transport. They are now getting their produce to the markets at Barpeta or Nalbari or even to Guwahati and where they are getting a good market for their produce.

Many of the returnees have been provided employment under the MGNREGA scheme. Only a very small percentage of all these boys have now been engaged. A lot more needs to be done. We have already created a database of all the returnees with help from the Panchayat and Rural Development Department, which is providing them work under the Rural Employment Guarantee Program. We also have skill Development Centres under the State Rural Livelihood Mission and they are going about giving them skilling in various traits such as domestic electricians, plumbers.

Sentinel Assam: As far as the education space is concerned. What would you want to say?

Ranjan Sarma: There is another innovation here, in the sense that some of the villagers came to me saying that they want to give some intensive coaching to the class 10 or class 12 students who are would be appearing for board exams next year. So, 5-10 boys and girls get together and the teacher comes and gives them some special tutorial classes which is helping them a lot. And this is done in batches so that we can maintain the social distancing. And the teachers also have been very supportive.