Rajasthan to rope in folk artistes for awareness campaign on COVID-19

The Rajasthan government will rope in folk artistes for a 10-day awareness campaign on the novel coronavirus which has infected more than 13,000 people and killed 308 in the state. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot suggested officials to engage folk artistes, who earn their livelihood through street plays, folk songs and puppet shows, etc., in the awareness drive.

It will help the artistes, who have been affected by the lockdown, financially and the state to "effectively communicate" its message on the COVID-19 pandemic in local dialect at the grassroots level, the chief minister said in a review meeting held through video-conferencing on Tuesday.

He said that the elected representatives, officials, government employees, and social organisations have to work on mission mode to make the campaign, starting from June 21, successful.   

The campaign, aimed at making people aware of the precautions and measures to be followed for protection from COVID-19, will cover villages, hamlets and residential colonies in the state.

"Through this campaign, the state government wants to make every person aware of the measures to avoid COVID-19 so that it can be controlled,” he said.

The chief minister said that the state government took steps to curb the coronavirus outbreak at the initial stage and now Rajasthan is the first state to start an awareness campaign at such a large scale.

He said that the state government has strengthened its health infrastructure during the pandemic.

"Our government has used the time of crisis to strengthen the health infrastructure in the state. As a result of this, we have now offered to other neighbouring states to conduct 5,000 tests daily,” he said.

Gehlot and health minister Raghu Sharma were present at the chief minister's residence for the video conference while other ministers and MLAs attended it from a hotel on the Delhi highway where they have been staying. Senior officials were also present in the meeting. The novel coronavirus cases in Rajasthan rose to 13,216 on Tuesday with 235 new infections, while seven more deaths took the toll to 308, the Health Department said.

(image from Twitter)