Despite the lockdown and all measures currently under force, the speed with which the Covid-19 infected and death counts in the country are increasing, it’s quite difficult to predict what the situation will be tomorrow even. The weekend scenario speaks of the seriousness of the situation and foretells that the situation may turn more worse. It’s nothing less than fighting a war and for that, the time to take at a far-reaching decision has arrived, which is to deploy the Indian armed forces, before it’s too late.
A series of reasons can be placed to justify the idea of calling the army. After four days of the lockdown, which has been announced overnight without signalling any prior hint that something drastic like it was in the offing, the overall situation will only suggest that it’s not that smooth as expected. The stress on existing public health infrastructure which is eternally fragile is just getting more visible and dearth of ‘aids’ in fighting the pandemic such as masks, sanitizers, thermal scanners, ventilators etc are all exerting a cumulative negative impact. Moreover, it’s also now coming to light that although thermal screening of air passengers returning home had commenced as early as January 18 starting with China-returned ones and subsequently added with those from other affected countries, it was only on March 17 the directive of compulsory 14-day home quarantine for all of them was enforced. This means the chance of spread of this highly contagious virus during this lapsed surveillance period cannot be ruled out, thereby signifying that the next following weeks might very well turn out to be more tougher than calculated. The country is also not doing enough on a very important aspect of the fightback which is mass testing and that needs to be started immediately on war footing. There are also a host of fronts where the administration is failing to reach out due to the tremendous work pressure thrust upon it such as taming the general public during lockdown and attending those migrant daily wage earners currently stranded in thousands due the melee, far from their homes and virtually starving.
To face the situation which is only getting unmanageable with each passing hour, an integrated approach along with a long-term strategy is the singular need. Indian Army, with its proven capabilities, massive medical infrastructure, logistics and a dedicated manpower of doctors, nurses and paramedics can be the only saviour to contain what is feared most-community transmission. From setting up of quarantine camps and testing centres to reaching out to the unreachable areas, it’s the army who can deliver far better than the general administration.
If the whole country now needs the army, for Arunachal and Northeast, the need is severe. Hope, central government realises the exigencies.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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