Guwahati Bihu committees up in arms against state governments COVID-19 SOP

GUWAHATI: The Brihattar Guwahati Bihu Samannay Rakhi Samiti today staged a sit-in demonstration against the COVID-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the Assam government ahead of the Rongali Bihu celebrations.

Staging the protest at the Latasil ground here, the Samiti, an umbrella organisation of all Bihu committees in Guwahati, demanded the Assam government to revoke two clauses of the SOP.

They urged the state government to extend the 11 pm deadline of winding up stage programmes and roll back the order of mandatory COVID test of all the Bihu committee members.

The Samiti also urged the government to provide free sanitisation at all Bihu pandals.

They reiterated that the artistes and all those associated with the Bihu stage programmes, had to suffer a heavy losses last year as Bihu celebrations were cancelled in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The Samiti said that the Bihu committees took up pandal construction work after state health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma declared that there would be no COVID related restrictions in Bihu celebration this year.

The Samiti urged the state government to either roll back the two clauses of the SOP or financially compensate all those who are directly or indirectly associated with the Bihu programmes.

Assam on Saturday reported 405 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the active cases to 1587.

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Two deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. The deaths were reported from Kamrup (Metro) and Baksa districts.

Kamrup (Metro) has reported the highest number of 145 COVID-19 cases followed by Kamrup with 28 cases, Barpeta and Dibrugarh with 23 cases each.

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