Lack of availability of Medicines, Water, essentials commodities

28th March, 2020

To,
The Hon’ble Chief Minister
Government of Manipur

Subject: Request for urgent attention on lack of availability of Medicines, Water, essentials commodities, Hygiene’s material (for Women), Electricity, Cash, Fuel, Animal Feeds and rights violations committed by the security forces while dealing with the Covid19 crisis.

Dear Sir,

Youth’s Forum for Protection of Human Rights (YFPHR) highly appreciate the initiatives taken up by the Government of Manipur during the Covid19 crisis. However, we would like to lay down few areas of concern and urgent needs to be addressed at the earliest which are utmost important to save your citizen.

1. Medicine

Sir, there are many bedridden and able patients (Such as BP, ART, Diabetic, Heart, Paralysis, etc) living with daily medication. We received information from the remote villages of Senapati, Churachandpur, Chandel, Moreh Town, Urkhul, Thoubal and various other places that their daily medicines which are mandatory to be taken daily are out of stock and though the pharmacy are open the medicines are not available.

Pharmacist are stopped by the police and asked to go back while they come out on the street to collect the medicines for the pharmacy.

Therefore, it is very important for your good self to kindly consider the same. We request you to kindly provide a Curfew Pass to the entire pharmacist so as they could collect the medicines and make available to the required patients and kindly arrange sufficient stock to address the same.

2. Water

Sir, it has been informed by the health experts and guidelines issued by the government that washing hand frequently with soap is one of the main practice to avoid Covid19 infection. However, lack of water in almost all the locality is not allowing your citizen to follow the good practices issued by our Government. Water are sold @ Rs. 300/- per 500 Lit which used to be sold @ Rs. 180/-.

Normal daily government water supply has been stopped in various area as a result the citizens are not able to follow the good practices. On the other hand, due to lack of water, it is highly questionable on how your citizen will be able to cook the rice provided by the government without water.

We request you to kindly provide sufficient water for your citizen as our state has commissioned various dam to provide unstopped water for its citizen.

3. Essential Commodities

Sir, our government is committed to provide 20 Kg of Rice through its constituencies MLA to the family member who has minimum members of 5 which is highly appreciated. However, we have been informed that villages which are located away from the District HQ are yet to receive the commodities for which we request you to kindly direct the concern officers to make available of the same at the earliest.

While the distribution of rice is in process it could observed and learned through various sources that some irregularities are being carried out in the distribution process as some family receives 5kg, 8kg, 10 kg etc. which could be a fault of the agents or the concern MLAs. For this irregularities, we request you to kindly monitor strictly so as all the citizens get their equal shares.

It could be observed that in the essential commodities distributed, no cooking oil, salt, sugar, dal, onion, garlic etc are included. We, therefore, request you to kindly make available of salt, oil, dal, onion, garlic, etc at the subsidised rate in all the localities.

On the other hand the Groceries shop owners are also running out of stock and are facing difficulties from the Police while on the way to collect required items. In order to curb this, we request you to kindly provide Curfew Pass for all the Groceries shop owners so as they could make available of essential commodities to the public.

4. Hygiene’s material (for Women)

Sir, during the period of any crisis it is very important for us to consider the difficulties being faced by the women and children as they become more vulnerable.

We received information that due to the lock down many women are not able to get access or to buy the Sanitary Napkins which is very unfortunate and may lead to negative health impact due to unhygienic practices. We believe that your good self to direct the concerns to make available of the Sanitary Napkins in the best interest of women and children.

5. Electricity

Sir, during the Lock Down period most of the household are provided sufficient power or electricity, however, power cut off could be observed some times in evening regularly. Herein, we would like to draw your kind attention that if the lock down continues for more days than the households will have shortages of cooking gas, therefore, kindly provide sufficient power in every household until the crisis ends.

6. Cash

Sir, almost all the ATMs are running out of cash and your citizens are also running out of cash in hand which is hampering to buy the essentials commodities, medicines and other requirements.

We, therefore, request your good self to make available of cash in all the ATMs with strict surveillances during the cash withdrawal and kindly direct the concern banks to maintain limited withdrawal limits so as no person can withdraw excess amount.

7. Fuel Sir, it could be observed that most of the Oil Pumps are found closed and the daily water tankers and emergency use are facing the hardship to provide water for the public and facing hardship for emergency purposes. It could have been a result of the same that the water tankers have hiked the prices.

We, therefore, request your good self to kindly make the oil pump open for specific period of time for every week so as the water tankers could continue to provide water for the people and emergency needs are fulfilled.

8. Animal Feed

Sir, your effort to save the lives of your citizen is highly appreciated. However, the livestock are also in a critical situation due to lack of its feed and need a proper intervention at the earliest. We, therefore, request you to kindly direct the Department of Animal Husbandry to make available of sufficient feed for the livestock at the earliest.

9. Human Rights Violation

Sir, the endless effort by deploying large number of security forces day and night to avoid public gathering is highly appreciated. However, in the past few days some of the police officers on duty have beaten the public due to possible intoxication by the Officer which is of serious concern.

Further it could be observed that pharmacist, groceries shop owners, people who are out to buy medicines, essential commodities are not allowed to move by the security forces and have misbehaved with them which is very unfortunate. We, therefore, request your good self to kindly provide proper human rights orientation on how to deal with civilians during HEALTH CRISIS period as our situation is a health crisis not an armed conflict.

We strongly believe that our Hon’ble Chief Minister will consider the aforementioned points in the best interest of the public.

Your kind concern and cooperation will be highly appreciated.

(Kh Phajaton)
President
Youth’s Forum For Protection Of Human Rights
Palace Compound West, Imphal East – 795001