By Anurjay Dhal
RAJKANIKA/KENDRAPARA(ODISHA): With Odisha including its costal pocket of Kendrapara houses large number of Foreign returnees as well as huge exodus of Non-Residents Odias(NROs) returnees are expected in next few days across the State including in Kendrapara, BJP National VP-Spokesperson, Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, who represented this Lok Sabha seat twice, apart from his 2 terms in Rajya Sabha, has on Saturday suggested Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Kendrapara district administration to use several Multi-purpose Buildings constructed during his terms of office and funded from MPLADs, as Quarantine Centres during this COVID-19 crisis. It may be noted here that Kendrapara reported 2 COVID-19 positive cases from Aul and Rajnagar blocks of the districts while the State Government had opened a COVID-19 Hospital for better treatment.
“The coming week will see a huge surge of migrants returning to Odisha.I request @naveen_patnaik to radically increase quarantine facilities. In Kendrapara, plz use the large number of infra built with support of MPLADs. Biggest Auditorium, dozen+ multi-purpose buildings and 24 Mini Stadium,” the senior BJP leader Panda twitted with photos of these infrastructure developments during his 2 terms from Kendrapara in India’s Lower House of Lok Sabha.
Kendrapara houses several Multi-purpose Buildings, which were largely constructed during 2009-19, when Panda, the present National VP-Spokesperson, represented this Parliamentary seat twice as BJD candidate in Lok Sabha, could hoses several thousands. “A large number of Pravasi Odias will start reaching home in next few weeks, and all these multi-purse buildings shall be used as Quarantine Centres to house them,” a statement from former MP Panda’s Bhubaneswar office said.
The senior BJP leader , who has been in constant touch with Party’s top brasses across the Country and ensuring safe stay and food for thousands of stranded Odias from West Bengal to Karnataka to Tamil Nadu to Maharashtra to Gujarat, had earlier urged Chief Minister Patnaik to take stern action on Odisha-West Bengal border, which yielded good results with large number of possible infiltrations have been stopped in view of the prompt action taken by Odisha Police at several check posts bowering West Bengal.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Government has stepped up intensive contact tracing in novel corona virus (COVID-19) hotspots in Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur districts to identify people who have recently returned from other states, especially West Bengal.
With more persons found infected with the deadly virus in Bhadrak, the three districts together account for 38 of the total 94 positive cases in the state.While Bhadrak 16 and Jajpur have 12 confirmed cases each, Balasore has 10 patients.
The District Administrations of the three districts with help of Gram Panchayat Chiefs and Urban Local Body functionaries have launched a drive to trace the people who had come in contact with corona virus patients.Director General of Police (DGP) Abhay has asked people to either observe total shutdown guidelines or face legal action.
