DHAKA,  – Local Government, Rural Development (LGRD) and Cooperatives Minister Md Tazul Islam today stressed on community involvement for effective enforcement of the zone based lockdown, especially in the red zones.

“It is impossible to enforce the lockdown effectively without the community involvement,” he said while visiting the ongoing lockdown situation in the city’s East Rajabazar area in the morning.

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, DNCC Chief Health Officer Brigadier General Mominur Rahman Mamun, word councilors and other officials concerned were present on the occasion, said a press release.

Tazul urged the authorities concerned to ensure emergency services, including healthcare, in the areas put under lockdown.

Emphasizing on the importance of introducing telemedicine services for the locked down areas, the minister said ambulances should always be ready in these areas to provide emergency services so that the critically sick patients can be rushed to the hospital quickly.

Noting that food items are being delivered to the house of the poor and destitute people free of cost in the locked down areas, he said arrangements have been made to deliver food and other necessities to the houses of the well-off people.

Expressing satisfaction over the lockdown situation in the East Rajabazar area, Tazul said, “The area has been put under lockdown on a trial basis. Steps will be taken to impose lockdown in other parts of the country, including the capital, utilizing the experiences of East Rajabazar”.

The European countries, which were hit by the coronavirus, are opening everything considering the people’s lives and livelihoods, the minister said, adding that there is no alternative to this (opening) to save the country’s people as well as the economy.