MARGAO
Congress MLA Reginaldo Lourenco on Saturday made a fervent plea to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to impose a total lockdown in Goa for at least a fortnight up to May 15 except allowing the continuity of essential services and supplies.
In his letter, the three-time Curtorim MLA requested the Chief Minister to reconsider the decision to have 50 per cent strength in government and PSU offices. “Many government employees have contacted me expressing deep fear for their health and safety; unfortunately, they are throttled from openly expressing their anguish under peril of breaching service rules. Except for departments dealing with essential services, I suggest that other departments, offices and PSUs could function with skeletal staff only to deal with emergency/urgent matters until the situation improves,” he added.
Saying the lockdown imposed in the State till Monday is woefully inadequate to meet the challenges posed by the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, he said a complete lockdown for at least another two weeks till May 15 is the absolute need of the hour,” he added.
“The second wave has hit Goa the hardest, our data is the highest in the country today. Our positivity rate was 51% yesterday (notwithstanding false negatives), an average 10% of the daily 3000 + positive cases require hospitalisation, our public health infrastructure is bursting at the seams. Protection of citizens’ lives is the first duty of the government and lawmakers; as the leader of the State, you need to act keeping this sole objective in mind. I am aware of the lives or livelihood dilemma; however, life means a life (and death) with dignity. If the stories and visuals from around the country are to be believed, we have been able to provide neither to our Covid afflicted brethren. We have to save lives now; given the strength of our young population,” he added.
