Members of civic bodies don hats of corona warriors

Panaji: Elected representatives of civic bodies, whether panchs or councillors, are often sidelined when it comes to important roles in favour of their empowered counterparts, the MLAs. However, the pandemic has brought about a change with representatives of civic bodies on the forefront in fighting Covid-19 in their respective jurisdictions.

The pandemic has brought them into focus as they have donned the role of watchdogs and offer great help to health officers who face problems in tracing contacts within their respective jurisdictions. They also keep tabs on those quarantined or isolated.

Also for a change, these representatives are executing their duties without anticipating any rewards. Some village sarpanches have taken their role so seriously that they are themselves calling up people in isolation instead of relegating the responsibility to their juniors.

Calangute sarpanch Francis Rodrigues said he makes calls to those in isolation three times a day to ensure that they remain indoors. “We have managed pretty well so far. We even provide them with groceries if a request is received,” he said.

Health officer of Candolim primary health centre, Dr Roshan Nazareth, said that both panchayats — Candolim and Calangute — have been of great help, and that his task of tracing contacts was rendered effortless thanks to active panchayat members. “I don’t know how they do it, but thanks to them my tasks were reduced,” Nazareth said. Candolim primary health has seen its cases increasing consistently during the last few weeks and had 55 active cases as of Thursday.

Verna sarpanch Lorina Fernandes said that panch members went an extra mile as their case count rose. It has about 60 cases. “To create awareness and to get people to remain indoors till their test result is received, we walked around the village making announcements using a loudspeaker,” Lorina said. She said their next step will be putting up posters at public places.

As panch members work and even go the extra mile to keep people safe in the pandemic, they are displeased that they do not always get correct cooperation from health officials.

“We do not receive any list of patients from the health department. The talathi shares the list which she receives from the mamlatdar,” the Verna sarpanch said.

Panaji mayor Uday Madkaikar said the health department does not give them information on time about new cases detected.

“At times health officials are not willing to answer our calls,” he said.