Shillong, May 6: Having a year’s experience in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Meghalaya Congress MLA Mohendro Rapsang on Thursday lashed out at the government over its inability to deal with the situation, even after spending 400-500 crores for infrastructure.

Rapsang questioned the government what has it done for this last one year. “The government kept saying that they were ready, but looking at the situation it doesn’t seem like it,” said Rapsang.

He stated that with that 400-500 crores one big COVID-19 hospital could have been built which would cater strictly only for COVID-19 cases. Under that budget 1000 beds could have been built dedicated only for COVID-19.

Rapsang mentioned that the situation has worsened and because of the rise of COVID-19 cases, hospitals will not even be able to focus on people suffering from other ailments.
When asked about the sudden lockdown announced on Wednesday afternoon, Rapsang stated that it was uncalled for.

He said that the government should have given time to the public to prepare. “The sudden announcement had led to a panic situation, with people rushing out to buy groceries,” said Rapsang.

He expressed concern over the people in his constituency since most of them were daily wage earners. Rapsang said that he had received several distress calls from people in his constituency.

“There were people who were stranded, while some were complaining about how they had a huge quantity of perishable goods which would go wasted,” mentioned Rapsang.
It is to be mentioned that due to the surge in COVID-19 cases the government had imposed total lockdown in East Khasi Hills District, and weekend lockdown in the other districts of the state.