Don’t lower guard against Covid; religiously follow all SoPs: LG

LG Manoj Sinha chairing a meeting on Friday.
LG Manoj Sinha chairing a meeting on Friday.

‘Govt’s innovative interventions generating more livelihood avenues’
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 9: Taking a detailed assessment of the present Covid scenario in the UT, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today chaired series of meetings with members of Covid Task Force, Deputy Commissioners, and SPs on Covid Containment efforts of the J&K Administration.
During the meetings with the senior officers, Div Coms, DCs and SPs, the Lt Governor was apprised about the Covid Scenario in the UT, vaccination and other measures to effectively tackle the spread of the corona virus.
The Lt Governor observed that J&K’s performance is better than many other regions of the country in terms of vaccination, daily testing and sampling, and advised everyone for not lowering their guard against Covid. “We need to keep following all SoPs, Covid Appropriate Behaviour religiously with utmost sensitivity and responsibility”, added the Lt Governor.
Taking a strict note of people flaunting Covid protocols, the Lt Governor observed that although the Government has been successful in bringing the situation under control, we cannot afford to lower our guard at this juncture.
Underlining the importance of heightened awareness among the masses to keep the positivity rate and infection rate low, the Lt Governor directed the DCs and SPs for intensifying the awareness campaign at all tourist places ensuring full compliance of the Covid protocol and Covid appropriate behaviour by tourists and locals.
To contain the spread of the deadly virus, the Lt Governor directed the concerned DCs to focus on the Blocks with high positivity rate and increase testing in such areas with Covid containment measures.
Expressing satisfaction over the vaccination percentage in 8 districts with 100% coverage and the ones near saturation, the Lt Governor directed the remaining districts which are lagging behind to adopt a more proactive approach and micro-level planning to meet the targets.
To further ease the process of availing healthcare benefits of SEHAT scheme, the Lt Governor directed the senior officers to develop an institutional mechanism so that the empanelled health institutions can directly avail the claims of patients treated under the scheme.
The Lt Governor passed strict direction for increasing and saturation of the coverage of SEHAT Scheme.
Meanwhile, Atal Dulloo, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department gave a detailed briefing on scientific data-driven analysis and other important aspects of the Covid management.
Meanwhile, LG said that J&K Government’s innovative interventions are getting visible results on the ground by generating more livelihood avenues for skilled & talented Youth of J&K, and creating better prospects for our younger generation.
Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha made these remarks while chairing a meeting to review the functioning of Skill Development Department.
Laying special focus on upskilling of the youth in various sectors, the Lt Governor directed the officials of the Skill Development Department to integrate Skill development with Youth clubs, besides exploring various modalities to hone the ability of the talented youth of J&K by taking the initiatives under skill development to grass root level.
Improve quality and market relevance of skill development programmes and provide more access to youth in skill training; Identify gaps and work in convergence for a better outcome, the Lt Governor told the officials.
We must put all our efforts to upgrade the skill sets of the youth according to the need of Market and make them ready for future jobs, observed the Lt Governor.
Keeping in view the objective of Make in India program, skill development is necessary for social and economic betterment, hence there is a need for skilling, re-skilling of the youth. A lot of new job skill-sets will be required in the post-Covid world and our training centres must be fully equipped for that, the Lt Governor said.
The Lt Governor also passed necessary directions for ensuring on the ground effective implementation of skill development related schemes envisioned by the Central and the UT Government.
He directed the officials to revamp the admission process in the Polytechnics and ITIs across the UT for ensuring 100% capacity utilization of these institutions, and improving the intakes of the students. On the recruitment front, the Lt Governor instructed for recruiting the faculty through a transparent process. He further called for conducting a detailed assessment to get an analysis of the success of the placement drives
Dr. Asgar Hassan Samoon, Principal Secretary to the Government, Skill Development Department gave an overview of the overall functioning of the department.
Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, CEO, Mission Youth, while briefing the chair about the achievements and targets set under various programmes, informed that around 18000 youth in 35 identified sectors will be trained under various skill development programmes.