20 November 2020 06:04 am Views - 2257
While saying that the support from the Health Ministry officials was not adequate in the endeavour to contain the Covid-19, Public Health Inspectors Union said there is an attempt to pass the blame on PHIs whenever there is a shortcoming with regard to Covid-19 related matter.
Speaking to Daily Mirror, Union Secretary M. Balasooriya said it was really unfair to pass the buck all the time on PHIs when it comes to Covid-19 related matters.
“As far as the Covid-19 situation in the Colombo city is concerned, several areas in the city are at very high-risk. Against this backdrop, there are a lot of things to be done especially for the people living in isolated areas,” he pointed out.
“We have observed that the support of the government officers attached to the Health Ministry is not satisfactory and adequate when tackling the Covid situation in the Colombo city. Entire responsibility is on the shoulders of the PHIs and security officers,” Balasooriya said.
“There are officers at the Ministry, who were recently recruited for the same duty of the PHIs. However, we don’t see them in the field,” he highlighted.
In addition, Balasooriya said the authorities had not taken any step to relieve the stress of the people living in isolated areas in Colombo and also authorities have failed to provide sufficient food items to the people as well.
“We also expect the support of the officers attached to respective Divisional Secretariats for the purpose of containing the virus. It should also be noted that there are government officers who do support us for this purpose but we are not getting the overall support," he underlined.
“We need everybody’s support to contain the virus. We are not accusing anybody but it is not fair to depend on the PHIs and security officials alone; then, it becomes impossible to contain the virus in the country,” Balasooriya added. (Sheain Fernandopulle)