DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat, who completed 100 days in office a few days ago, spoke to Atul Sethi & Kautilya Singh at his camp office in Dehradun. Looking at the major milestones and challenges in his tenure, he defended the decision to hold
Kumbh
amidst the
Covid
pandemic, countering his predecessor
Trivendra Rawat
’s claims of the event turning into a super-spreader. The CM also spoke about having uncovered the fake Covid testing scam much before it gained
media
attention and elaborated on his plans for tackling the third wave of Covid and bringing the state’s economy back on track.
Excerpts:
Uttarakhand has faced a lot of flak for holding the Kumbh when the second Covid wave had started. Looking back, do you think you could have organised the festival differently?
I took over as CM just a day before the first major shahi snan of
Mahashivaratri
was to take place. There were doubts in many people’s minds whether the Kumbh will be held or not. Preparations had been done for months for the festival which comes once in 12 years. The seer community’s faith is deeply connected to the event. Therefore, I announced that we will have a grand and divine Kumbh. Of course, we were aware of the threat of Covid but at that time, it was not at its peak. We said we will follow all guidelines and hold the festival which we did. I think we were quite successful.
How do you react to your predecessor Trivendra Rawat’s recent statement that he was in favour of limiting the number of attendees and his worst fears of the Kumbh becoming a super-spreader came true?
For people who are saying that the
Kumbh Mela was a super-spreader event, I would like to ask them that how come other states then had more Covid cases than Uttarakhand? Did
Maharashtra have a Kumbh Mela? Did Delhi-NCR or
Punjab have such a festival? Then, how come they recorded so many Covid cases? Even when Covid was at its peak,
Haridwar
did not have many cases. Other districts like Dehradun, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar were far ahead of Haridwar in terms of the number of cases.
You say that Haridwar’s Covid numbers were less than other districts but it has now come to light that this was because of the fake testing scam that was busted recently. Around 1 lakh fake tests were conducted and many of them were shown as negative results.
We followed all guidelines during the Kumbh. As far as the irregularities in testing that have come up, they are being probed. Also, I want to reiterate that the moment we spotted the irregularities, a probe was ordered. There was no hiding anything. It has been almost a month since this matter is being investigated by us even though it has come out in the media only recently. Also, the MoUs with the firms who are involved in the fake testing were done much before I took over – in December last year, in fact. We are committed to having a fair probe and punishing the guilty.
Are you satisfied with the work that you have done during the first 100 days in office?
I have had many plans of vikas (development) for the state but the first 100 days have been spent mainly in dealing with Covid. Nobody had anticipated the scale of the second wave. Even I got infected with Covid, but I utilised the time during quarantine to hold e-chaupals and review work through video-conferencing. We ramped up our facilities to meet the Covid challenge. From a total of 3 oxygen plants that we had, I ensured that there is an oxygen plant in each of the district hospitals and tried to make sure that we also get down to equipping all the community health centres for the third wave. We have appointed 348 doctors and sent them to interior areas – today, there is no block in the state which doesn’t have doctors. I have asked CMOs in each district to recruit nurses and ward boys from the local population and also sanctioned budgets in advance to them. Around 200 dental professionals have been deployed to meet the requirements of qualified health professionals in medical facilities. Final year students of medical colleges have been put on Covid duty. Another big initiative has been regarding children orphaned by Covid. The Vatsalya Yojana initiated by us is different from the schemes started by other states. We have decided to sponsor the complete education of the children who have been orphaned due to Covid – not just higher education but also technical education. Plus we have made provision for a monthly stipend of Rs 3,000 to each child. Even if one parent has passed away, we are considering such children as being eligible for this scheme, and helping them. No other state is doing this.
So, is the state fully prepared now for meeting the challenge of the third wave?
I am praying there is no third wave but having said that, our preparations are complete. We have strengthened health services on the ground and paid special attention to child healthcare facilities since children are said to be vulnerable during the third wave. We have also reserved hotels to meet the need for beds. I have toured all the 13 districts to check the arrangements myself.
The Covid Curfew has had a crushing impact on Uttarakhand’s economy. How are you planning to revive it?
We are going to make a big announcement regarding employment generation in the coming days. All I can disclose presently is that we are planning a big recruitment drive in government departments. There will be no department where recruitment does not happen.
What about business owners? Traders are facing huge losses; hoteliers and tourism professionals are lamenting about losing two peak tourist seasons due to Covid.
I empathise with the losses suffered by businesses but the situation was such that everybody got affected – in every sector, not just in our state but across the country. We have already announced a scheme worth Rs 29 crore for providing help to people of the tourism industry. In addition, we are planning another scheme through which we plan to give an amount every month to personnel associated with the hotel and tourism industry who are facing difficulties. An announcement regarding this will be made soon.
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