Saptari, July 28

Chief Minister of State-2, Lalbabu Raut, has directed the subordinates to keep coronavirus control in high priority.

Chief Minister Raut, who arrived in the district to garner information about the status of COVID-19 prevention and control, reiterated that State-2 was the most vulnerable in terms of the spread of coronavirus, so all sides’ efforts were imperative to control it. Addressing a discussion organized at Rajbiraj Municipality on Monday, CM Raut further said protection of human life is more important than development activities.

“Entire management needs to focus on saving people’s lives in the crisis,” he underscored. He made commitment that additional machines would be provided to expand the coverage of PRC testing reasoning the virus has spread to community level. The State government is committed to providing safety materials as PPE, mask, sanitizers, gloves and medicines to the health workers, the CM added, pledging the budget of Rs 10 million for the same. Moreover, the CM appreciated the role health workers, people’s representatives and employees played to fight the disease despite minimum resource.

On a different note, CM Raut said adequate budget would be allocated to control the soil erosion caused by the Balan River. He also sought the master plan to control river caused erosion. In case of the need of huge budget, even the federal government and donor agencies could be approached.

Earlier, medical superintendent at Gajendra Narayan Singh Hospital, Ranjit Kumar Jha, and other health workers had complained with CM Raut that they were compelled to work under severe shortage of human resources and medical goods for the control of COVID-19.