Gujarat: Take the jabs, get full tax waiver in this Kutch village

RAJKOT: While big cities are choking under Covid’s deadly grip, hamlets are showing better resilience while staving off the killer virus or even by fighting it off.
Mota Angiya, a village of Kutch district, is proving to be a clear example in how to handle the pandemic. While it has four active cases, the village has armed itself in advance to defeat advances of the contagion.

The village, located just 5km off Nakhatrana taluka, has announced 100% panchayat tax waiver for the financial year 2021-22 for those families in which all the adult members have taken two shots of the Covid vaccine. It has also completed its target of 60% vaccination of the first dose for people above 45 years of age.
Panchayat tax includes charges for water, property, sanitation, and also for street lights which comes to a total of around Rs 700 annually per family.
Sarpanch Iqbal Ghanchi told TOI, “We have made advanced planning for the next three months to give a good fight to Covid in case more people get infected. Already a half-day voluntary lockdown is in place to curb spread of the virus.”
The village made a team of youths in every ward who will help senior citizens above 55 years of age in getting sufficient stock of medicines. Patients will be given a mobile number on which they have to send the prescription for the medicines to be procured from Nakhatrana or Bhuj town.
They have also made a plan to provide tiffin service to the infected people and for that a kitchen has already been made operational in a primary school of the village. The panchayat is bearing the entire cost without asking for donations.
The village will also start a Covid care centre (CCC). “Looking at the shortage of beds in city hospitals, we will create a 15-bed CCC in the next two days which will be operated by primary health centre staff. The villagers will then not have to travel to talukas for treating illnesses.” Ghanchi added.
The panchayat also sanitizes the village at regular intervals and if anybody calls to sanitize their home, the panchayat readily provides the facility.