Do you think the setting up of the HPC was a political face-saving exercise?
The Nagaland Cabinet which met on June 1, 2020 decided to constitute a High-Powered Committee (HPC) headed by the Chief Minister to decide on policy matters relating to COVID-19, including supervision of the State War Room.
The decision to set up the HPC was necessitated in the backdrop of strong criticism faced by the government over the manner in which the decision was taken to send-off the Chennai returnees to Tuensang without first ascertaining the results of the Covid-19 tests and putting at risk many more people to the pandemic.
In the fight against Covid-19, a good part of the state machinery, including District Task Forces (DTF) across the State was functioning under the Empowered Group headed by the Additional Chief Secretary now stands dissolved.
The people of Nagaland may be interested to know the following:
The Cabinet, while constituting the HPC, also took the decision for “supervision of the State War Room”.
This is somewhat misleading because the existing Covid-19 War Room, although headed by the Chief Secretary was always “monitored by the Chief Minister’s Office” and in fact the CM’s office was involved and responsible for “policy, directions and advisory” in the war room set-up (see below screenshot of Covid-19 dashboard).
By disbanding the EG without any valid reason and superimposing the HPC, what kind of message is the political establishment sending out to the State work forces, including those in the frontline fighting the Covid-19 pandemic? To demoralize the workforce at this crucial juncture will be unfortunate.
The setting up of the HPC however does not answer the grievances raised by the people of Eastern Nagaland through its apex body ENPO—to hold accountable those responsible for violating the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
A senior Minister also a member of the HPC stated in the media that the HPC was formed so that such incidents (Tuensang fiasco) do not occur in the future.
Do you think the setting up of the HPC was a political face-saving exercise and to cover up the incompetence of the Covid-War Room in its former avatar?