Minister Sanjay Kishan reviews COVID-19 scene in tea gardens of Sonitpur district

* Sanjay Kishan inaugurates office of Assistant Labour Commissioner in Tezpur

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TEZPUR: Minister of State for Labour and Tea Tribes Welfare, Sanjay Kishan on Saturday inaugurated the new office building of the Assistant Labour Commissioner, Tezpur near Tribeni in Tezpur in the presence of MLA of Borsola, Ganesh Limboo, MLA of Rangapara, Krishna Kamal Tanti, secretary, Labour Welfare, Mridul Kumar Mahanta, Deputy Commissioner Bhupesh Chandra Das, and other dignitaries.

Earlier, a felicitation programme was held which was conducted by Assistant Labour Commissioner, Sonitpur, Rupali Pegu and Medical Inspector Plantation, Dr Pradip Kumar Lahkar. The new office building has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 2.1 crore, work on which began in 2019.

Later, the Minister chaired a review meeting and took stock of the prevailing COVID situation in the tea gardens of Sonitpur district at the conference hall of the Deputy Commissioner's office in the presence of the management of various tea gardens of the district.

At the very outset, the Deputy Commissioner in his welcome address informed all present that till date a total of 70,854 doses of vaccines had been given to labourers and families living in tea gardens of the district. Out of these, 62,281 are first dose and 8,573 are second dose. He also informed that the positivity rate in the gardens had significantly come down in the district and that the administration was taking special steps to ensure 100 per cent vaccination coverage in the tea gardens.

Minister Sanjay Kishan informed all present about the various steps taken by the government to tackle COVID in tea gardens and asked the tea garden management to ensure that all such facilities were received by each and every tea garden labourer. He also directed them to provide all health facilities at the tea garden COVID Care Centres and asked the district administration to ensure strict monitoring of the functioning of these CCCs. He also directed the doctors and medical officers of all tea garden management present to pay special attention to post-COVID complications and offer proper medical attention to such cases.

The Minister also announced that an additional amount of Rs. 150 per patient per day for providing food at CCCs would be given to the tea garden management from the Labour department, funds for which would be released soon. This amount is over and above the amount of Rs. 300 already being given by the government for COVID management.

During the meeting, special review was done of all facilities available in the CCCs and special focus was given on ramping up awareness activities about both testing and vaccination along with COVID appropriate behavior. During the meeting, a special awareness song sung by Sajan Nayak along with an audio message was also circulated among the tea garden management for carrying out extensive awareness activities in their respective areas.

Addressing the gathering, MLA Ganesh Limboo stressed the need to expand the reach of all government schemes to the tea garden community and to create awareness regarding the same. MLA of Rangapara, Krishna Kamal Tanti highlighted various issues faced by COVID positive patients in CCCs and asked the district administration to address the same and directed the tea garden management to improve infrastructure and other facilities in the tea garden hospitals.

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