COVID Chronicles Part 8: Naveen Leads in Saluting the Grassroots Fighters

Bhubaneswar: The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in India during the initial days of February necessitated the deployment of large number of frontline grassroots warriors who could fight at the ground. Odisha, which took many proactive steps before the virus entered into its territory, decided to engage the grassroots level resources such as the Panchayatiraj members, Anganwadi workers and teachers who are best conversant with the ground realities.

Odisha’s strong three tier Panchayatiraj system was the best structure that could act as a successful shield to the alien disease. In the pursuit to empower the ground level fighters, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared relegation of the powers of the Collector to the Sarapanchas. This remarkable decision helped the government in fighting the Coronavirus at the village level.

Delegating the powers of Collector To Sarapanchas:

In a historic decision, the Odisha Government on 21st April, decided to delegate the powers of the District Collectors to Sarpanches of Gram Panchayats for their jurisdiction under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897. Announcing the decision,  Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said “The 14-day quarantine is very important to protect the returnees and their families. To implement this effectively, the State government delegates powers of District Collectors to sarpanches of Gram Panchayats for their jurisdiction under Section 51 of Disaster Management Act, 2005, Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 read with Odisha COVID-19 Regulations, 2020”.

Administering Oath To Sarapanchas:

On April 22nd, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik administered an Oath to the Sarpanches of the state for their fight against Coronavirus. He administered the oath of responsibility to the 6,798 Sarapanchas of the state who are ready to fight against corona.

They were administered an oath by the chief minister that made them responsible for quarantine of people visiting their villages from other States and to make proper arrangements for their stay, food, and medical treatment and not allow corona to enter villages.

Addressing the PRI members Naveen said “I have full confidence on the capacity of sarpanches. If they strictly follow the measures announced by the government to contain the spread of corona, then corona cannot enter villages”. He also said that the entire government machinery is with them for their good work. Naveen also interacted with the members personally to take their valuable opinion regarding the fight against Coronavirus.

Hailing the Ground Level Workers:

It was a splendid moment for Shantilata Nayak, the Sarapancha of  Manitara Panchayat in Bugud Block when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik personally talked to her after she clamped down effective shutdown using the new Collectors Powers. Naveen praised Shantilata Nayak for taking the bold step to clamp shut-down in the panchayat. She was the first Sarpancha in the State to have taken the decision on May 9 after the State Government relegated Collector’s power to all Sarpanches to deal with CORONA-19.

On April 30th, Naveen praised Annapurna Choudhury, an anganwadi worker of Odisha’s Ganjam district, who had despite her post-surgery pain, showed exemplary dedication and joined her duty to safeguard the people. Naveen called her up and had a brief interaction and praised her for the dedication towards duty at the time of COVID-19 crisis.

Naveen also had a series of interactions with Covid warriors who were undergoing treatment in various Covid Care Centres. On July 11th the Chief Minister spoke to Covid warriors undergoing treatment in various Covid Hospitals and enquired their well being. While he highly appreciated their dedication towards the fight against Covid, he assured all support.

While appreciating the efforts of the frontline Covid warriors, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called for a silent prayer recognizing the dedication of the frontline workers. In a bid to boost the morale of the thousands of people engaged in the fight against Covid-19 in the state, Naveen urged people to observe a silent prayer on August 5th and take an oath to follow guidelines to avoid infection. “I will lead a silent prayer in the memory of Covid Warriors. I appeal to my 4.5 crore sisters and brothers of Odisha to join this silent prayer at 6 pm” Patnaik said in his message.