Bhilwara gram panchayat manages to prevent Covid spread
UDAIPUR: After the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic had ravaged through Kaliyas gram panchayat with 54 reported cases last year, the panchayat timely got its acts together to keep the second at bay this year.
The gram panchayat logged four cases this year. But the village sarpanch Shakti Singh (43) insisted to others that declining cases should not lull locals into complacency, a lesson Singh learned the hard way when he lay infirm in home isolation after contracting Covid-19 the previous year.
The near-death experience haunted Singh so much that he made up his mind t not to let his village wither away in the second wave.
Singh said that he stitched together a team of about 100 youths who undertook an extensive door-to-door survey to inform villagers about the very precarious second wave of the pandemic. They also tracked people who had symptoms of illness due to flue.
The timely arrangements were put in place back in March itself. Many locals scoffed at the arrangements because they were convinced that the pandemic had retreated once for all.
Singh promised regular wages under MNREGA to those who followed Covid-19 appropriate behavior. The social boycott was offered to those who didn’t abide by the norms and risked the lives of others.
These hard measures have so far kept Kaliyas safe, even as nearby villages are still reeling with the virus.
“So far we have been able to contain the virus in our gram panchayat. Of the three villages with 8,000 population that come under us, only four tested positive, which is better than what we had seen last year,” Singh said.
“I have experienced the illness. I was under home isolation for 15 days and those were really difficult days. That day I promised myself that if I live to fight another day, I will not let pandemic race ahead of us,” Singh told Hindustan Times.
As soon Singh learned about an impending second wave earlier this year, he quickly made arrangements to meet the challenge to avoid the repeat of last year. “Each team has five volunteers with a separate dress code.
They are tasked with different duties, so if one team is assigned patrolling, the other team would be involved in ensuring that Covid-19 appropriate behavior is strictly followed and all people wear face masks,” Singh said.
While talking to HT about Singh’s campaign against the Covid-19 virus District Collector Bhilwara, Shiv Prasad Nakate said,”involvement of public representatives in COVID fight is always encouraged by state government Public representatives at grass root level like Sarpanch have helped a lot to our core committee to ensure compliance of guidelines issued for containment, door to door health survey, and medicine kit distribution & vaccination program.”
The panchayat and volunteers are now running dawn-todusk operation that involves the distribution of food, coordination with the medical staff and finding out people who have symptoms of influenza-like illness.
Singh also converted his car into an ambulance and his farmhouse into a quarantine center for those people who don’t have a separate space for isolation at their homes.
So far we have been able to contain the virus in our gram panchayat. Of the three villages with 8,000 population that come under us, only four tested positive, which is better than what we had seen last year SHAKTI SINGH, sarpanch of Kaliyas gram panchayat