Naveen asks party MLAs to serve people

Bhubaneswar: Asserting that Odisha is entering the most critical phase in its fight against the Covid-19, BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday told his party MLAs that the pandemic provides a unique opportunity to serve the people like never before.
While addressing the MLAs over video conference, the first virtual meeting since the outbreak, Naveen said Odisha is in a better position compared to other states because of the blessings of Lord Jagannath, cooperation of the people and hard work of the people’s representatives and government officials.
“We have one of the highest recovery rates in the country and one of the lowest mortality rates. We still have a long way to go and have entered the most challenging phase in our fight against Covid-19. From setting up Covid-19 hospitals to making medical equipment available and training of manpower, we have done it in record time,” said Naveen.
The chief minister said irrespective of the development works the MLAs have done for their constituencies, the pandemic is the biggest challenge for them in public life, as it concerns life and death of people.
“You have a big role to play in the fight against the virus. People have faith in your leadership. In your every act, every move, every step you should inspire our workers and people at large to follow Covid-19 guidelines and take care of themselves and their families,” said Naveen during the video conference.
He requested the MLAs to work on some specific areas. While the BJD MLAs were earlier asked to organize Jiban Bindu (voluntary blood donation programme) in their constituencies to cater to the blood requirement during the lockdown period, Naveen urged the MLAs to further intensify the programme.
As the state government focused on community participation by forming ward-level committees in each village for effective management of the pandemic, Naveen asked BJD legislators to mobilise party workers to work at volunteers in their respective villages.
The chief minister asked MLAs to motivate party workers to take care of the elderly people, who are most vulnerable now and to create massive awareness on wearing masks and maintaining social distance. He also asked them to avoid public gatherings and use other methods to connect using technology.
The chief minister also sought cooperation of the party MLAs for smooth functioning of the ward-level committees formed in all 50,000 villages across the state for community monitoring and the Covid-19 care homes in all 6,798 gram panchayats to isolate the suspected cases.
The BJD legislators have also been asked to monitor the livelihood and skill development programmes announced by the state government. Naveen also spoke on the steps taken by the state government like arranging quarantine facilities for returnees, social security measures during lockdowns and scientific approach in handling the situation.