Chief Minister N Biren Singh

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to prevent racial abuse and unnecessary harassment of the Northeast people amid coronavirus outbreak.

Chief minister N Biren raised the matter while taking part in the video-conferencing of Prime Minister with chief ministers on Saturday, according to a press release in Imphal.

Informing them that many people from the Northeast are facing different types of harassment, Biren said around 30,000 people from Manipur alone are stuck in different parts of the country due to the current lockdown.

Requesting the Prime Minister to direct the States to do the needful to stop harassment of Northeast people, he pleaded with the Prime Minister to make an arrangement to bring back those people of Manipur to their homes.

He also pleaded the respective chief ministers to look after the Manipuri students and people stranded there adding that the addresses where they are putting up are being forwarded to the States concerned.

Regarding the State’s preparedness to face pandemic Covid-19, the Chief Minister said that facilities of 3200 beds are kept ready for quarantine.

Besides one dedicated block of 50 beds in Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences and Regional Institute of Medical Sciences hospitals each is earmarked for Covid-19 patients.

More ventilators have been installed in both the hospitals, he informed.

The permission is being sought from Indian Council of Medical Research to allow testing for Covid-19 in some selected private diagnostic centres to increase the number of testing facilities, the release stated.