E-Paper
Covid-19 forced governments to rethink and reframe policies: Himachal CM
Jai Ram Thakur said the Prime Minister appreciated the state’s strategy of active case finding campaign to trace infected persons.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the governments to rethink and reframe developmental policies, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Tuesday.
He was addressing a virtual rally of BJP office-bearers and workers of Jaswan-Pragpur of Kangra district through video-conferencing.
The chief minister said the coronavirus crisis also provided the farsightedness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government as it took prompt steps to contain the pandemic that brought the world’s most powerful nations to their knees.
He said Covid-19 has adversely hit the world’s countries including India. “This virus has forced us to rethink and reframe our strategies and developmental policies and programmes,” he said.
The CM said lakhs of people of the state, particularly students, were stranded in different parts of the country at the initial stage of the lockdown and most of them were in distress. It was the state’s moral duty to bring them back. These people were evacuated in buses and thirteen special trains.
“This, however, has resulted in sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Himachal, but couldn’t have left our own people to their fate,” said Thakur.
He said all people coming from other parts of the country have been kept under institutional or home quarantine, and Himachal’s overall situation was far better than the neighbouring states.
Thakur added that the Prime Minister had appreciated the state’s strategy of Active Case Finding (ACF) campaign to trace infected persons.
He thanked the people of Jaswan Pragpur for contributing about ₹35 lakh towards the HP Covid Response.
Apart from donations, the people of Jaswan Pragpur distributed about 65,000 masks and 1,800 Modi Kits to the needy.
Speaking on the occasion, Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Anurag Thakur said the six-year tenure of the Narendra Modi government has paved the way for a new, strong and vibrant India. He said the Union government has announced a ₹20-lakh crore economic package that envisages support to every section of the society for their economic revival. He also detailed various developmental programmes launched by the Union government.
Industries minister and local MLA Jaswan Pragpur Bikram, Dehra district BJP president Sanjeev Sharma and Jaswan Pragpur block president Vinod Sharma also spoke on the occasion.
