Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that the Northeast has done a good job in containing the spread of Covid-19 in the region.
Singh, the Minister of State for the Development of North Eastern Region, said this during a high-level meeting on Covid-19 with the chief secretaries and senior officials of the eight northeastern states. He appreciated the manner in which the states acted judiciously and intelligently in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
"The Northeast is being appreciated by all for the manner in which it has managed to contain the spread of coronavirus," said Singh.
The meeting, held through video conferencing, included representatives from the governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. The representatives of the states shared their inputs on the movements of migrant labourers and the impact of Prime Minister's Rs 20 lakh crore economic package, along with the assessment about the relaxations to be given in the days to come.
In response to a demand from certain states for the resumption of air services to Guwahati, Singh said the decision will be taken at an appropriate time by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Civil Aviation. On resumption of trains, he said the matter has already been taken up with the Railway Ministry.
Singh insisted that the priority is to resume the work of development projects which got held up due to Covid-19.
"In this regard, he urged upon all the state governments to expedite submission of Utilisation Certificates and other relevant documents in order to enable the North Eastern Council and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Ministry to make up for the time lost in the wake of the Covid pandemic and the lockdown," said a statement.
( With inputs from IANS )