LONGDING, Apr 26: Stating that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the shortage of agriculture and horticulture produces in the state, Kanubari MLA GD Wangsu on Sunday asked the agriculture and horticulture departments to boost their activities.
He said this during a meeting here with the Longding DC, SP, DMO, DFCSO, DHO and DAO regarding the district’s preparedness during and after the lockdown.
“The situation would not have been this dire if we had boosted up the agri-horti sectors. People run after PDS here only because we are not able to produce surplus agri-horti produces ourselves. This should serve as a lesson to all of us and we should be prepared from now on for future eventualities,” Wangsu said.
The MLA also came down heavily on “a few idle staffers of agriculture and horticulture departments, such as AFAs,” and urged the DAO and the DHO to put such staffers to task.
“They should visit villages and train the villagers on new technologies of agriculture. We have never seen their activities for long,” he said.
DC Cheshta Yadav informed that the administration is soon going to revive the APMC market and provide vehicles to bring organic vegetables, besides identifying a plot to sell the vegetables from.
She informed that “sufficient buffer stock of PDS rice has been kept, and enough medicines have been procured for the district.”
On being apprised of the shortage of staff in the health department, the MLA suggested to the DC and the DMO to “deploy trained nurses and other paramedical staffs from Wancho community,” saying that he would provide “nominal incentives for their service.”
Wangsu also asked the DC and the DFCSO to monitor all the fair price shops to ensure fair distribution of PDS items.
The DC informed that a monitoring team has been constituted following receipt of several complaints about irregular supply of PDS items.
She said the PDS rice for the months of April and May has already been issued to most of the villages, along with free rice, “while a few other villages will be issued rice within the week.”
The MLA requested the SP to provide basic facilities to the family members of police personnel who are engaged in Covid-19 duties. He donated Rs 1 lakh towards the police welfare fund, and another Rs 2 lakhs to the district administration as assistance. (DIPRO)