Jitendra Singh praises Ladakh administration, civil society's fight against coronavirus

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday appreciated the administration and the civil society in Ladakh to help the Union territory gradually come out from the coronavirus assault. In a meeting with Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh R K Mathur, who had called on the minister here, Singh conveyed the government's appreciation for the consistent diligence and effort with which the Union territory administration had dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and also succeeded in containing it, a statement issued by the personnel ministry said. "He noted that it was Ladakh which had caused initial alarm for the entire country when suddenly a number of cases reported coronavirus positive from among the returnees, who were coming back from Iran pilgrimage, but it goes to the credit of the administration and the civil society that Ladakh is among the first to gradually come out from the corona assault," the statement said.

During the meeting, they discussed the COVID-19 situation and other issues, including revival of development activity in the newly-created Union territory. Among the various projects in the pipeline, the minister also mentioned the project for processing of 'Leh Berry' for which the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has prepared a plan.

The Minister of State for Personnel also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his clear instructions to give priority to peripheral areas of Ladakh and north east, as a result of which air cargo supplies started reaching there even before the lockdown. As of today, the store of ration, vegetables and fruit in Ladakh is in much bigger quantity than it would have normally been otherwise in this part of the year, he added.

The minister also had a word of praise for the two young deputy commissioners of Leh and Kargil and the two Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) of these two districts respectively who were in touch on day-to-day basis and coordinated for different issues from time to time, which helped in facilitating supply of medical equipment and later the movement of people returning from different parts of the country. Mathur apprised Singh of the current situation and said now an effort is being made to revive the development activity. He also discussed some of the projects related to power generation and construction work which had got delayed due to the pandemic and said that very soon these would be revived. The LG thanked the minister for his day-to-day support and for facilitating central assistance during the entire period of the pandemic. Ladakh has 52 COVID-19 cases, according to the Union health ministry. PTI AKV SRY

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