Golaghat DC Bibhash Chandra Modi spoke exclusively to The Sentinel Assam

Golaghat had hit the headlines as COVID hotspot. From being a COVID hotspot to creating livelihood opportunities for locals who have been rendered jobless as well as at least 5,000 returnees, Bibhash Chandra Modi told us how he as the District Commissioner overcame every challenge thrown at his and his team within days of taking over as the DC of Golaghat. Here are the excerpts from the exclusive interview he gave to The Sentinel Assam.

Sentinel Assam: Golaghat had hit the headlines as the COVID hotspot. How did handle the situation and overcome all of the challenges?

Bibhash Chandra Modi: I took over as the Deputy Commissioner of Golaghat only on 1stFebruary 2020. I think two days after my joining, I received one message from the government that all hotels in Kaziranga area should be taken care of because foreigners, tourists stay there. We were already hearing about so many COVID cases in Italy and Spain. We convened meetings with the hoteliers, created a WhatsApp group to monitor the hotels and the tourists. Some significant steps were being taken. Only on self-certification we allowed the tourists to stay in hotels. Thereafter we started to slowly ask the hoteliers to discourage the entry of foreigners here. Then we opted out for evacuation of the foreign tourists. Systematically we evacuated and therefore by the end of February all tourists have left Kaziranga. So that was you can say the beginning and learning of what is all COVID about. But in the month of mid-March suddenly, we received some information from Government that there is some outburst of covid cases in people from Nizamuddin Markaz. There were 11 persons from Golaghat who had attended the Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi where a sudden surge of COVID-19 positive cases was reported. This gave the district a jolt overnight and we started contact tracing which led to the listing of 53 people. Next day out of that 11 persons, nine returnees tested positive, two of them stayed outside the state. You would be very surprised and it is a great pressure for me that we happen to be the first district to have COVID patient in the district Civil Hospital where people did not know what is going on. We kept the COVID patient in the hospital and started their treatment there. All of them were discharged. When these positive cases were tested, we had to announce containment zone. For the first time people started learning words like restricted zone, containment zone. We as a district also felt in a way what to do. We went through all the rules and regulations. Then we realised that we have to provide civil supplies to all the villagers there. Many medical teams were sent, awareness camps were set up, sanitisation process was started. The whole thing was a new concept, there were challenges for the district administration because we never witnessed such kind of situation. But ultimately it gave us a boost to our administration that we can now face COVID. So that was the confidence-building measure you can say for the first time. Then we started the Community Surveillance Programme. We started testing. So in the community in that period of time there was not a single case reported positive. The situation worsened actually when the government took the decision to allow all the people from different corners of the country to return.

At one point of time on a single day we had to receive 890 shramik passengers here in Furkating station. We opened transport cell, emergency cell, transit camp, testing units. It was like a very mega event. We had to arrange beds for 2,700 people within just two days and I should say that it is an insurmountable task we had to take. I am really indebted and thankful to all my colleagues and civil servants and all police officials and panchayat in particularly. Within the next 15 days we had to open 48 quarantine centre to accommodate these 3,000 people there.

On 25^th the Central government declared the lockdown. Then we faced another very unprecedented situation. We had to create our own stock for rice, dal, and every grocery item in our shops. Because suddenly everything was shut. So we had to start home delivery system. We officers decided to provide vegetables, grocery and even the medicines. We invited many young boys and we utilised their service. We engaged as many as 35 vegetable vendors to provide essentials at the doorstep, even fish. And so there was no community transmission. We avoided it by delivering everything in the doorstep. We have only 42,000 population in the township so it is a very small township with 13 wards so we could manage very well.

Sentinel Assam: How did you handle the situation in the rural areas?

Bibhash Chandra Modi: One thing used to pinch us was the condition of the villagers because we understood that they were suffering from so many disadvantages in this unprecedented situation. So, one day Honourable Minister for Agriculture Shri Atul Bora visited, I accompanied him and I saw the grievances, pent-up frustration among the villagers. So that ignited me to do something. We created a concept called Tholua Krishak Bazaar. Only local people can come in the bazaar. So I am proudly on record saying this that Golaghat opened two Tholua Krishak Bazaar (Local Bazaar). That has made a sustainable character, it started with earnings of Rs 72,000 per day, now it has escalated to Rs 2, 50,000 per day. So we have invested more than 20 lakhs for creating infrastructure like toilet, office and the godown. Vehicles we have arranged from the district administration side and the major contribution what our team has done that we have broken up the chains of the middlemen. Now villagers they are plucking their own vegetables and straight away they are selling in the market. One local bazar is in Golaghat and one in Dergaon.

Sentinel Assam: As far as the returnees are concerned, what have you thought about them?

Bibhash Chandra Modi: You see Government has created one portal called Assam Cares. We registered 19,000 plus reverse migrants in Assam Cares. But ultimately only 4,893 reverse migrants came back to our district. So immediately what we did after their arrival they were put in quarantine, they were tested. So many people they tested positive in that process. We lost our two months, very valuable time of two months. So what happened after two months when they returned back to their home then we started feeling the heat that these people are jobless. Now they need some sort of funds. So we mapped the entire scenario. If someone has some land they were given under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, we have covered 502 reverse migrants under that project for composite farming, farm ponds, plantation like guava, papaya, banana, areca nut. Many are getting covered under schemes for welfare of SC. I have conducted 12 awareness camps with all these reverse migrants. So in this awareness camp what we have done, I have enlisted 5 Pradhan Mantri Rozgar schemes say Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampadha Yojana. These schemes were offered to them. Many people are booked under the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yojana. We have made most of them understand about the different type of government schemes. I think within the next two to three months everybody will be doing something because we have asked for some CSR grant from ONGC and NRL also. NRL and ONGC have expressed their interest on this matter and our proposal. We have submitted proposals to many public sector units so that these boys who have returned, they do not have to go back.