CUTTACK: Has the State Government forsaken Cuttack and left it to its fate in the midst of portends for a serious Covid-19 flare up, while focussing all its energy on the Capital city of Bhubaneswar? Or, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has just not been able to measure up to the task and taking the imminent threat to the Millennium city lightly.
While the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities have continued to be on their toes to deal with the coronavirus situation and prevent its spread, civic officials in Cuttack seem to be lounging in a false-sense of security and ignoring the dangers posed to the Millennium city.
It is true that Bhubaneswar has been a hotspot from the beginning of the Covid outbreak in the country and reporting high number of cases but Cuttack, though a late entrant, has begun to witness a consistent surge in cases in recent days and the situation may go out of hand in no time.
Yet, visible action or a well-defined strategy to prevent the spread of the virus in the city is missing. Cuttack district has in the last one month turned into a red zone and included in the five hotspot districts of the State. The district has reported 522 confirmed cases till date while the Millennium city has recorded 33, of which a significant number is local. Public health experts have already raised the red flag of an impending disaster in the city, considering its civic setting, population and congested living conditions. The city has 309 slums, who account for a whopping 35 per cent of the total around six lakh population. However, a glaring instance of the vast difference in approach on two parts of the Twin City is the active surveillance undertaken in the vulnerable zones.
STRIKING CONTRAST
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has begun house-to-house screening in the slums
No screening of workers coming to areas under CMC
BMC makes institutional quarantine mandatory for people arriving from hotspot dists
There is no monitoring system by CMC to ensure compliance to all the Covid-19 norms
The BMC has initiated a planned intervention involving dedicated teams and personnel to ensure house-to-house screening in the slums and nothing of the sort is happening in Cuttack. In another major step, the BMC on Friday announced stricter control measures mandating compulsory institutional quarantine for people arriving from the hotspot districts of Ganjam, Cuttack, Balasore, Gajapati and Jajpur. In Cuttack city, however, it is a free for all - even for those coming in from outside states.
While the spurt in inflow of workers from other states to Cuttack after relaxation of lockdown norms has increased, the CMC seems to have closed its eyes to the virus threat. Beyond a statutory instruction to all coming from other states to undergo quarantine, there is no monitoring system to ensure their compliance to the norms.
As economic and commercial services besides constructionrelated activities have resumed, many workers have begun coming to get work in industries, farms and other activities in and around the city. A majority of them have arrived from Covid hotspot West Bengal and engaged in Jagatpur and Khapuria industrial belt. These workers are entering the city without any registration but the CMC is yet to initiate any step to keep surveillance on them.
There is no arrangement to check them at the entry points including bus stands, railway station and other junctions in the city. It also has no data on such workers who have arrived in the city since June 1. The industries and contractors hiring them are also not registering the workers in the absence of CMC enforcement. Quarantining workers for 14- days entails great loss for them and thus, they are not reporting. However, CMC Commissioner Ananya Das said she had issued a letter to district labour officer to keep an eye on people coming to the city for work and inform her for necessary action.