CORONA, ELECTIONS & DISASTER
By: Tej K. Magazine
Tags: Corona, Coronavirus Covid19, Disaster Management, Coronavirus

Whole of India is responsible for where the Nation is today, on Covid-19, and where the country would be in days to come…………frightening! Experts warning of doom, day in and day out — media exploiting it to the hilt. Government demonstrating its helplessness (to state it in simple terminology — ALROUND FAILURE). Day after day Indians are getting convinced and panicky that the Nation of 133 crores is on the point of no return. Indians are watching death and destruction every day with no respite. People loosing dear ones, families loosing young bread earners, small children orphaned. Helplessness! order of the day. Statistics as reported in print media, Covid-19 phase two, till date (16–05–2021), has taken away 2,70,284 precious lives to eternal journey (RIP) and 36,18,458 active cases are struggling to survive, with grossly inadequate facilities and over stressed medical teams.

Very few people follow the basic norms of safety and escape from Covid-19, i.e., Wear Mask; Maintain Distancing; Wash Hands. Care free people, antipathy of political leaders, party politics, election rallies, farmers agitation, Kumbhmela, festival holy dips, hoarding, black marketing of vital drugs and most surprising — alleged black marketing of wood for cremation in some towns, mismanagement of Oxygen supply chains, inadequacy of hospital beds…conflict of political interest between Centre and State Governments. Name any other related aspect, it is emergency — crisis — -failure and above all ………………..Hon’ble PM & HM personally responsible for contributing to rapid spread of the virus…their excessive indulgence in election tourism, exhibiting muscle power by herding masses without masks and unmindful of maintaining social distancing at election rallies- greatly contributed for the ongoing catastrophe.

PM remaining frequently absent from Rajdhani, trouble was brewing up. Spike was catching up speed day after day. PMO and Health Ministry taking the grave national health crisis easy. No lessons learnt from Phase I Pandemic. To punish the incompetent, regain a bit of badly shaken public confidence, the least PM could have done was to sack the Health Minister, Health Secretary, D G Health and the guy at Niti Ayog looking after or advising on Health portfolio. Health Minister, even now, could be replaced by a fully trained and experienced member of the Ministerial team, to handle grave emergencies — Gen. (retd.) VK Singh, who is presently handling obscure portfolio of Statistics. Covid-19 taking thousands of Indian lives daily. But, no lessons learnt, now Hon’ble Supreme Court, as usual, on Govt. failure on many fronts, had to jump in, to take “administrative responsibilities” of the Govt., nominate a Committee of Experts to regulate O2 supplies for Covid-19 care. Had the Govt. of India been proactive and learnt the right lessons from Phase I pandemic or even from early days of the ongoing Phase II the Govt. could have inducted a few Senior Supply Chain professionals in the Ministry of Health to manage critical Covid-19 supplies. India possesses quite a few expert SCM professionals, who are certified as “Materials Management Experts” by Indian Institute of Materials Management and SCM Specialists trained and certified as Consultants on International Purchasing & Supply Chain Management by International Trade Centre (UNCTAD / WTO), Geneva.

May, I, as a citizen of India, ask a few questions to concerned authorities:

01. It is over six months now that govt. is a mute spectator to vested interests in the name of Farmers, occupying vital national highways connecting capital of India and beyond. Thus, causing tremendous harassment, inconvenience and delay, daily to lakhs of travelling public, besides, hindrance to essential supplies for northern states , UTs, as well as troops guarding borders with China, in Ladakh. During ongoing O2 crisis, against normal 2 hours it takes 6 hours+ for a tanker to reach Delhi from a mfg. location in UP. Is the govt waiting for next general elections to clear the highways from these encroachers?

02. When the spike graph was climbing up at unmanageable speed, was it prudent to add fuel to the fire and organize Kumbhmela?

03. Why did Election Commission allow rallies all over the election states?

04. A year ago, GOI had allotted funds to certain States for new oxygen plants, as reported in media, some states partially used the funds and some did not at all. Why did not GOI monitor progress and ensure compliance.?

Will heads roll for the grave negligence?

With unabated death and destruction for the second year now, origin of Covid-19, and emergence of various variants every now and then, whether man made or accidentally released — the motive behind it remains a mystery, but, needs to be solved. History has taught the world- powers that be, managing conflict at various weak locations in the world, from time to time, running into several years, which automatically gives boost to business of military hardware. Does Corona take us to the thought process of manmade biological warfare, to boost up business of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. If the release is accidental, will the responsibility be fixed and the defaulter country made to compensate the world? UN must undertake a scientific and political investigation in a time bound manner and conclude. It would be interesting to quote top front-page brief, appearing in Tribune dt. 15–05–2021: “Leading UK and US scientists have called for more investigation to determine the origin of pandemic, including the theory of accidental release from a lab in Chinese city of Wuhan. In a letter to Journal ‘Science’, the experts said knowing how Cuvid-19 emerged, was critical for global strategies to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks”.

In spite of lack of knowledge, experience and resources at the time of first phase of Covid-19, Govt of India did quite well under the leadership and close monitoring by PM, to minimize the impact of the pandemic then. Perhaps overconfidence of leadership and negligence of hierarchy below created havoc in managing pandemic II. People anger against PM is justified; that could have been contained to a large extent, had PM been bold enough to roll down defaulting heads starting with Union Health Minister. But, propaganda videos, audios and stills released by dozens on social media by vested interests, with grossly false and biased content, against PM, are not justified. After all PM has been doing a good job on many fronts for development ,reforms & digitization of public services. Role of several political parties in creating doubts in people’s minds about indigenously developed vaccines, needs wide spread condemnation.

Govt. has done well in delivering 130 million jabs till a week ago. But, created confusion by dual pricing, partial decentralization, slow down of supplies etc. Only solution to defeat the pandemic is to vaccinate 100% population of India, i.e. 133 crores (minus 13 crores) within next six months, free of cost. Supply vaccines to states in proportion to population. Total cost should be borne by the Central Government. Penetrate deep into every nook and corner of the country, introducing new supply chain ideas, like the one on social media, suggesting using ICECREAM CARTS having ‘desi’ cold storage and refrigeration system, can reach any neighborhood galli and make vaccine program success. Besides, locally available Health Worker and unemployed Ice Cream vendor can get gainful employment.

Kudos to India’s scientists (both public and private sector) for taking lead in vaccine development and presently engaged in improvising it, besides, very recent Zydus & DRDO wonder developments (Hakim Sahib’s shartiya ellaj).

Highest appreciation for Doctors, Nursing sisters, Ward boys, Safaiwalas, State and Central police forces, All the Agencies managing food for Covid-19 patients, needy and poor, NGOs, logistics providers, Lions Clubs and Rotary Clubs, organizing Vaccination Camps, etc. etc. etc.

Finally, based on the experience gained till now, for managing Corona, I have following suggestions to make, some of which may need Constitution / Statute amendment / legal course remedy:

01) Once some one is elected as PM, he or she becomes Leader of the Nation…….should be barred from electioneering for the Party. He would not be PM from the majority party, but Prime Minister of people of India.

02) Any Election to be conducted, should complete within five phases and one month max.

03) Canvassing and campaigning for all phases should end with filing of nominations for the first phase and not a day beyond that.

04) Election Commission should not be a relaxing station for babus, who are favorites of the ruling party at any given time.

a) Election Commission should have a tenure of THREE YEARS instead of FIVE YEARS.

b) Election Commission should comprise of serving or retired persons of proven professional reputation, honesty, integrity and impartiality:

— — State Chief Secretary or Secretary to GOI level senior IAS officer

— — Lt. General rank officer from Armed Forces

— — IPS officer of DGP rank

— — Educationist of High eminence

— — Highly Educated Principled Politician

— — Professional Legal Expert

— — Senior Officer of Election Commission

c) Commission should be selected and nominated by high power Committee, consisting of: Vice President of India, Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Chief Justice of India and Law Minister.

05) Each District in India should have a highly trained Disaster Management Team, fully equipped, headed by an Officer of Additional D.C. Rank.

06) Each District should have A minimum 100 bed Hospital for Emergency Diseases/Accidents etc. equipped with Oxygen Plant / Ventilators etc. This would be in addition to existing Govt. Hospital at District H.Q.

07) Hospitals with 50 beds and above, must have Captive Oxygen Plants, essential lifesaving equipment, ventilators etc.

08) Housing Societies, regulated Residential areas should have first aid rooms with oxygen cylinders, Ambulances or access to ambulances within 10 minutes reach and first aid trained volunteers.

Let India — the world’s largest democracy uphold its global prestige !

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