Assam: 90-Year-Old Hypertension Patient Receives Medicines from Good Samaritan Cops amid Lockdown

Guwahati, April 13, 2020:

When medicines were personally delivered to the doorstep of a 90-year-old hypertension patient in Juria of Assam by Assistant Superintendent of Police Saurabh Gupta, this act of kindness highlighted the swiftness and efficiency with which the Assam Police is coming to the rescue of its citizens who been subjected to suffering amid the nationwide lockdown.

What it took to set the wheels rolling in motion was a simple tweet from the man's son, Anupam Kataki, who reached out to the cops due to difficulty in procuring the medicine amid the lockdown that has more or less brought life to a standstill. The medicine, Anupam said, needed to be brought from Nagaon (15 kms away), which his aged parents could not themselves. However, a single tweet resolved his quandary.

Anand Prakash Tiwari, the man behind the control room which oversees this work told Inside Northeast, "A person who is not in Assam, Anupam Kataki, contacted us. He wanted medicines delivered from Guwahati or Nagaon to Juria. Immediately, the medicine was collected and handed over to the parents. I shared Anupam's post on Facebook myself."

For Anand Prakash Tiwari, the Assam State Transport Committee (ASTC) Chairman, a dual role came knocking when he was assigned the role of control room handler, unique to the coronavirus crisis. From supplying groceries to migrant laborers stuck in other states to supplying medicines to elderly statesmen, the control room is responsible for catering to the needs of people. All this is made possible by the "cyber dome" created by the Assam Police.

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The IPS officer aided by his team has so far helped scores of Assamese with rations and food packets. However, where the Tiwari-led team has truly made the mark is in reaching out to people stranded elsewhere looking for a pass back home.

"Look at the cases of the elderly pilgrims who are stranded amid the lockdown, for instance. We laid special emphasis on two groups stranded in Prayagraj and Vrindavan as they are elderly, and facilitated them. Now, thankfully, the Vrindavan group will be brought back to Assam as they are very aged. They will set off soon on their return journey", Tiwari told us.

Tiwari says that the key to tracking down people requiring help consists of an amalgamation of social media, control, personal contact, and network of service. "We have integrated everything with a humanitarian approach", Tiwari said, adding, "so much so, that 5 helplines have also been opened for psychologists for people in distress. It is not like everyone wants money only."

Meanwhile, due to a lack of census of Assamese migrant workers in other parts of the country, the administration has been blindsided. "Look, we receive over 800-900 requests daily. However, it is difficult to ascertain how many people there really are who have been faced with trouble amid the pandemic. Lakhs from Assam probably are still outside. No such census exists, therefore we have to make use of what we have", he says.

The need to deliver medicines timely to sick people is one of the biggest challenges that the control room faces, Tiwari said. "Just yesterday, we received a call from Jorhat; there was urgent need for a medicine which is not available there. We procured a single phial of the medicine and shipped it across. Now, we are searching for another batch over in Delhi so that we can deliver it", he added.

The problems of the people amid the lockdown that has been extended till May 3 are of various kinds, Tiwari says. "Someone needs medicines, someone needs food, someone needs assurance. If they don't have money, the administration has a system wherein they will deposit money in the account of persons who need it. However, first, they will verify whether that person in question truly needs it", he adds.

Have you ever wondered how the administration is coordinating its efforts to deal with the crisis? Tiwari explains in details.

15 new desks have been started in the cyber-dome and each desk has been given a multimedia set and WhatsApp numbers. Another control room, that is the disaster management control room, has also been alerted and they too have been integrated into the system to track, pinpont, and resolve the problems on a day-to-day basis.

In the cyber dome, there is a social media monitoring mechanism as well. "We are getting feeds from social media also. Everything is coming and culminating in a desk. Virtual desks have also been set up to facilitate the difference in language to convert it, draft it and prepare in a perfect manner so that it can come to us in a pristine package."

A DSP and two SP officers pass the information on to Tiwari, who supervises the inter-state problems. "If the issue being raised pertains to the state of Assam, it will circulate in their level, if it belongs to other states it will come to me also", he said.

The IPS officer says that the inter-connectedness of the various platforms has resulted a smooth functioning of the process, leading to greater efficiency in dealing with the crisis.

Another key, he says, is connecting with his network of fellow IAS and IPS officers. "I studied at the Allahabad University which has a slew of people serving in a similar capacity in the administration. Thus, whenever I need any assistance, I have the luxury of pinging one of my old batchmates or hostelmates. Especially in the time of corona, this network of IAS/IPS officers has come handy, when we are all looking for information and coordination."

Thus, the battle against the pandemic is not just being fought on the frontlines. Against the backdrop of the terror unleashed by this contagion, people like Tiwari, aided by social media, are soldiering on and waging an information war against the virus that has torn scores of families apart.

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