OPCC Chief Draws Odisha CM’s Notice To BMC Failure In COVID-19 Management

Bubaneswar: Close on the heels of Orissa High Court keeping the state government on 15-day notice on steps taken on sanitisation in the Twin City, OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik has drawn the attention of chief minister Naveen Patnaik to total failure of the BMC in the COVID-19 management.

In a letter to the chief minister, Niranjan termed the apathy and callousness with which citizens of Bhubaneswar are being treated by BMC as extremely unfortunate. “My letter has nothing to do with my political views and I merely speak as a citizen of Bhubaneswar,” the letter read.

Claiming that there is a universal anger cutting across class divide against the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Niranjan requested the chief minister to get a review done by the chief secretary to find out the reasons.

“In normal times, this level of anger would have manifest in agitational programme. But, these are not normal times,” he said.

The senior Congress leader raised the following issues:

• BMC Officials are not approachable and are only interested in one-sway communication.
• It is difficult to speak to the Ward Officer of the BMC, let alone the BMC Commissioner.
• The Helpline number, though has started functioning, is often expressing helplessness.
• BMC is relying too much on antigen test and the number of RT-PCR tests is inadequate.
• Test is not available on demand as had been advised by the Government of India. People, who come to know that they had come in contact are not able to get tested and remain under stress.
• Test reports take days to come and often people are under stress.
• Those in-home isolation have not been provided pulse oximeter like in many states and are receiving poor support.
• There is an acute shortage of hospital beds.
• For one ICU bed being vacated 3/5 persons are waiting to go into the ICU.
  While expressing satisfaction at the low death rate in Odisha like all over Asia, the PPC President has asked the Chief Minister to take an objective view and take action as deemed appropriate.