 Hello, welcome to New Steel. It has been a month since the DMP formed the government in Tamil Nadu and has fallen to cover as the DMP. We have with us, as Krishna Swami of Orlandia People's Science and Engineering Group discuss how the past one-one has been to respect the COVID-19 pandemic. He will be telling us what measures the new government has taken and whether they have been effective or not. Hello sir, thanks for joining us. So could you please brief us on this, what measures the DMP has taken and how it will be implemented? One month is a very short time to look at implementation in total but of course they are doing it much better than what was happening earlier. The DMP government luckily and very sensibly, even though they have a majority, they have taken on the partners in their ruling in the coalition that was for the elections. So decisions have been taken in all party meetings or at least involving all the people in different parties which have been in the state. And this is a good process that not leaving out even the opposition but having all of them together and making decisions. And the other thing is that it is unlike earlier scenarios, one good thing that this government Stalin has done is that to provide continuity but not changing the health secretary. The health secretary Jay Radhakrishnan was there before and sensibly he was continued so that there is some continuity provided the whole handling of the issue. And the other thing which has been done very well is the choice of the health minister. Unlike people's expectations, many people thought he will get a whole doctor and so on but he chose really a man on the ground. Who is known to be a worker who does work on the ground and takes into account suggestions by officials, doesn't overrule them if they are sensible and so on. So that way choice of the health minister, retention of the health secretary are very good decisions that were administratively done in order to compare this COVID. And the other thing of course is that immediately on assuming charge, providing this 4,000 rupees, of course the first installment of 2,000 rupees to the people through the ration cards, that is a very good move because especially during the lockdown, almost just a few days after the ministry was formed and government took over, lockdown was announced and then this lockdown has been continuing. So during this lockdown period at least people got some 2,000 rupees at least in Chennai, the rural areas are still to get. So this 2,000 rupees will provide good, at least money for people to keep during the lockdown. And subsequently they have also said the other 2,000 rupees will be given. So this is a good thing and also bringing in at this point of time, COVID-19 affected children, children who have been orphaned because of COVID-19, either both parents or a single parent, so they have been given good support in terms of future education as well as current support if they are living with some guardians. And all provided admission in the government hostels. So I think these are good moves that have happened. Of course writing to the central government has also been done on time immediately almost within the first week to render service. So these are good measures involving the community, involving the people in fighting COVID and not making it as if it's only a government thing and so on. And also this other thing of removing the emblems of people and having only the state government emblems and what is being distributed. I think also gives the impression to people that it is their government or it is not some particular person who is being projected. So these are good measures which I think even other governments and the central government essentially should follow rather than keep you on putting pictures of Prime Minister and everything that is being distributed, including the vaccine certificates. Yeah, so that is one thing. And of course also this question of, there's been some visiting of Mahasubramaniam and the Health Secretary to different districts has also been quite good. They have managed to visit all the important affected districts and come up with interactions with the collector to provide facilities. And for example in Coimbatore, which is the second largest now compared to Chennai, there has been more attention that has been paid to Coimbatore. And I think this also shows that irrespective of the party, whether the party won or lost or so, it has been a fairly uniform rendering of service, providing of services, government facilities to all the districts and places. Yeah, so overall I think this government within one month has shown real good measure and hopefully they will continue the same sort of attitude and performance in the next coming months also. On the one hand, we see the state trying to tackle pseudoscience activities like eating snake to contain COVID or the public's team. But on the other hand, we also see the COVID care centers developing in the state itself, the government itself is opening up these centers. How do you see this contradiction? You know that is compared to the earlier situation, at least things which are definitely not agreeable, for example, the snake eating and the sort of steam inhalation thing and so on. So they've come down heavily on this. And for steam inhalation, again, Master Brown has very clearly said that all these things should not be provided in public places and they will only lead to increase. No people using the same mask again and all will lead to only transmission of infection from asymptomatic to others. And also that it does not approve and benefit and can cause harm. So this has been good. The SIDDA centers have been opened. I think at least this pushing for this untested medication has not happened so much. And mostly the SIDDA centers have been in terms of mild COVID cases and more like COVID care centers. So that has been okay. And I think the overall handling of misinformation coming down on misinformation has been better performance within this one month than earlier. And they've also welcomed people coming on board to help fight this disinformation part. So for example, Science Forum was also organized with respect to Arrivedal Corona Revival. So that's a good that is using science for defeating Corona. And these have been welcomed and there have been local interactions with health department people. And so some joint work, as I said earlier, government has allowed people to participate in this COVID management process rather than making it only as a party effort. So since day one, the new government has been writing to the central government in Modi, asking for several things, whether it's the intensive oxygen or more recently also the new thermite process. So this has been going on and what is your take on it? I think handling remedies, sir, again, they have shown good thinking by bringing enough remedies where for people and also making sure that it's not the black market part and people having to run around that is reduced. They've provided outlets where remedies can be obtained and so on. And the oxygen part again, it is a complete mismanagement of the center and the earlier government of not forcing that oxygen demand and making enough oxygen availability locally. And there was one year of preparation which was completely wasted. No, nothing was learned from the first day. And though Tamil Nadu had enough oxygen supply, obviously the demand went more than what is available. And now, temporarily they managed to get some amount of oxygen from other states, Orissa and also Singh. So this is one thing of course, in this process, the Sterlite which sort of used this to bring on their own factory, get some sort of food hold into it. They have not really been performing what they said they would perform. They're supposed to give 1,050 tons but they've hardly managed to give about 70 tons so far. And so this is a thing of course, the vaccine part again, vaccines were in short supply and they managed to procure more vaccines. And the other good thing is that opening up of 18 to 45 and especially targeting people like auto drivers and people who are more occupationally at risk. That's a good move to target the 18 to 45 age group. But vaccines are a big problem because again, the population of Tamil Nadu or the population of India did not change drastically between last year and this year. So the simple arithmetic would have given the numbers of how many doses should have been ordered. After April end, it has become completely crazy by asking states to buy bid on their own. Obviously, that will increase the total pricing and where will the states go and buy different vaccines on this? So this is just what is a little not understandable is why the states have all sort of fallen into this. That the state should have robustly rejected just as like for example, they rejected the NEP part. They should have said, no, it's a responsibility of the federal government to make the purchase of vaccines and give. And you don't ask the state governments to go around purchasing and doing this. But please the state governments have said that they will supply the vaccine free. But this is a problem and one thing that could have been earlier itself is that opening up the public sector to making the vaccines. Chengalpet HLL, which is a story in itself, it has been languishing for the past almost nine years after it was started. And it has not produced a single vaccine, no other vaccine has been produced. After public interest litigation was put in the High Court, they started manufacturing sanitizers with that. This is a completely ridiculous situation. You have some 800 crore investment with 100 acre land, which is just lying idle. And the people who are working there will try to get attached to other places. Obviously, what should have been done in January 2020 or that period itself that HLL should have been made to produce these in the Chengalpet facility, the integrated vaccine complex. They should have been made to produce a co-vaccine and the CoV sheet. No, that's quite possible. And even though it's possible, all that the federal government has to do is do what the state government is asking. The state government has very rightly, first they try to have expression of interest floated. And then they said, look, you give us a lease so that TITCO, which is part of the Tamil Nadu government thing, can industrial development cooperation, can take over the HLL and make use of the HLL facilities. Intense lockdowns are continuing in the state and more recently district-wide lockdowns have been implemented. What is your take on these lockdowns and have they been effective in containing the virus? Over the last earlier time, during the ADMK, it was completely a police ranch. No, section 144 and the police, given full sync to, they were treating people like terrorists on this thing. At least that is not happening now. But even then, decentralization of containment is something that we still have to learn from other countries which have very successfully done it in New Zealand and Singapore and South Korea, in China. No, you cannot just have a total entire country-wide or a statewide lockdown and that's not really very meaningful. And livelihoods have to be considered. You have people who are selling things on the street, they are the ones who suffer a lot. There's no compensatory mechanism for them. The earlier farmer markets are all closed down. So instead of just closing them down like that and in fact in local here, people had brought vegetables from the villages to sell and they were just forcibly thrown away. No, vegetables were missing and they were made to take. So this is the wrong way to do things. So rather a decentralized mechanism, of course our panchayats are not being functioning. The panchayat system is completely defunct without elections and so on. But even then, it's possible administratively to empower the local panchayat and the local collectors so that they take a decision sector-wise or local region-wise rather than doing it statewide. Thank you, sir. Thanks a lot for joining us and throwing light on this.