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Coronavirus scare: BTC polls postponed

Guwahati: The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election, scheduled for 4 April next, has been postponed indefinitely. State Election Commissioner Alok Kumar on Friday informed that the polling for the council is being deferred in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Earlier, the Assam government had asked the State electoral authority to defer the BTC polls. The opposition parties too urged the authority to postpone the polling. The Congress along with some other parties sent memorandums for necessary action.

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Friday appealed to the people to whole-heartedly support and adhere to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for voluntary observance of a self-imposed 'Janata curfew' on 22 March. He urged all countrymen to stay at home from 7 am to 9 pm and lend their efforts to save the country from the Covid-19 scourge. Commenting on the global coronavirus outbreak, Governor Mukhi said that the virus has had a cascading effect on humanity with various nations having advanced health science presently on toes trying to study the nature of the virus and come out with an antidote.

“In this challenging scenario, the global scientific fraternity has suggested that social distancing and avoidance of any kind of social gathering is the best and most effective means to keep the virus infection at bay,” said the Governor, adding that the pandemic is a global problem and large scale mass awareness is the only viable option for building a well-concerted peventive against it.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday called on Governor Mukhi at Raj Bhawan and apprised him about various initiatives taken by Assam government across the State to deal with the outbreak.

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