By ARUN PRATAP SINGH
DEHRADUN, 22 Apr: Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat today directed the top officials of the state to draw up a plan for ensuring generation of income by small scale businessmen and traders and other local people and said that permission for agriculture related activities should be granted in accordance with the guidelines of the Union Home Ministry. He also said that work on Smart City projects could also be resumed albeit with less manpower.
He issued these directions during a high level meeting he chaired at his official residence with the top officers of the state today.
Rawat observed that Uttarakhand was faring much better than most states in prevention of COVID-19 (Novel Corona virus) infection. The CM observed that while, nationwide, it was taking an average of 7.5 days for Corona positive cases to double in numbers, in Uttarakhand, the number of Corona positive cases were doubling in 26.6 days. He said that Uttarakhand was thus faring much better than most of the states in prevention of Corona cases and was currently ranking third, overall, in this regard.
Rawat also expressed satisfaction with the performance of police, health and sanitation department officials and said that the public’s support and cooperation in preventing spread of Corona pandemic was also praiseworthy in Uttarakhand.
He, however, observed that the on-going practice of honouring Corona warriors by garlanding them, of offering them bouquets or shawls was not proper and needed to be stopped in view of the protocols of social distancing. If the Corona Warriors were to be respected, they could instead be felicitated by maintaining a safe distance and by showering them with flowers. He also directed all not to click photographs of persons who were involved in distribution of food-grains and other essential items by violating the norms of social distancing. He demanded strict adherence to the norms of social distance in order to prevent spread of Corona infection.
Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, DGP Anil Kumar Raturi, Principal Secretary Manisha Panwar, Secretaries Amit Negi, Nitesh Jha and Radhika Jha were among those present during the meeting.
