Councillor Jagdish Samrai shows the way, urges slum dwellers to take Covid jab

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 4

Nearly 80 per cent area of the Ward No. 78 is covered by slums. While the slum area dwellers might be expected to be less aware of the developments regarding Covid, area councillor Jagdish Samrai makes sure to reach out to each one of them. These days, he has been visiting the slum areas on a daily basis to make people aware of the Covid vaccine. He has been handing over a list to the people where they can visit and get themselves inoculated.

Samrai had just received the jab. So, he also shares his experiences with the people of the ward to encourage them to get jabbed. “I keep telling them that there is no side-effect and they must definitely go to the site to get jabbed,” he said.

Samrai said he has also asked one of the Senior Medical Officers to send a team to the area so that he could ensure that people are getting vaccinated.

Even when the pandemic began, there were several people in Ward No. 78 who did not have anything to eat.

Samrai had come to their rescue. He made a list of people who did not have anything to eat and distributed food packets to them. People had then run out of their LPG cylinders and were unable to cook for themselves.

Samrai said slum dwellers were out of jobs and there was nobody to help them out.

“It is my duty to stand for them. Thus, I made sure that nobody sleeps on an empty stomach,” he said.

To tackle the problem, Samrai also took an initiative to visit each home with pamphlets that display precautionary measures against the disease. The ward has several economically-weaker families. The Congress councillor had got 5,000 pamphlets printed for the purpose and also put-up banners at various places in the ward.

He has been known for his fight for rights of his ward residents. A few days after becoming the councillor, Samrai sat on a dharna against the Municipal Corporation and that too for a genuine demand of providing safai karamcharis for the ward. He then took a broom in his hands and started cleaning the roads.