GUWAHATI: Enraged over denial of “chicken biryani”, a section of COVID-19 patients in Tripura vandalised a government facility and “harassed” some health workers.
The incident occurred late Wednesday night at the Saheed Bhagat Singh Yuba Awas in West Tripura district where the state government kept the asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. The incident prompted the authorities to order a probe.
Official sources said a section of the patients had vandalized the government lodge and “harassed” health workers alleging “bad quality of food” served to them.
However, according to local media, the patients resorted to vandalism and beat up some health workers as they were not served “chicken biryani” and other “good quality food” which they had demanded.
Calls made to the District Magistrate as well as the district Superintendent of Police went unanswered. Till Thursday afternoon, the state recorded 622 cases. Altogether 173 patients recovered. There were no deaths.
Assam has also recorded a number of incidents where the returnees kept in quarantine centres created fracas and misbehaved with health workers alleging poor quality of food served to them. In one incident, when the inmates of a quarantine centre were venting their ire on the same issue, the health workers deployed there had locked themselves up in one room fearing trouble.
Alarmed by the rising incidents and resultant fear among health workers, the state’s Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma warned on Thursday that the unruly returnees would be arrested.
“If the inmates of quarantine centres create a nuisance or behave badly, they will be arrested under non-bailable Sections and sent to jail,” the Minister warned.
“If people undergoing quarantine in government facilities are facing any problem, they should inform us directly. Don’t create a nuisance,” he told journalists with his message directed at returnees.
A lot of people have benefitted by contacting the Minister directly through Twitter. He earnestly deals with every genuine grievance.