HYDERABAD: The High Court of Telangana on Tuesday directed the Police Department and the GHMC to ensure that the violators are penalised for not wearing face masks and not maintaining social distance as per the Covid-19 guidelines. The court also directed the officials to file a detailed report and appear before it, along with the Director of Public Health and Family Welfare, on January 28.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shali, heard a batch of Covid related PILs and writ petitions and observed that “it is unfortunate, we don’t see the police or the GHMC checking people violating Covid-19 norms. There should be strict checking on the violators and fine should be imposed on them as per the instructions issued by the government.”
A counsel for petitioner K Pawan Kumar informed the court that “the government in its latest status report says that they have taken up a door-to-door fever survey between January 21 and 23 and found that 1,70,000 persons had symptoms of fever and 1.78 lakh fever kits were distributed. But these fever kits cannot be used for children”.
Senior counsel L Ravichander informed the court that people visiting the weekly vegetable markets are not following any Covid protocols, leading to rampant spread of Covid-19.Advocate General B S Prasad informed the court that till January 23, the State conducted a total of 3,13,78,819 tests and 7,34,815 returned positive with total positivity rate of 2.34 per cent. The recovery rate in the State is 95.08 per cent and mortality rate 0.55 per cent. In the last seven days, over 1 lakh Covid tests per day were conducted in the State, he added.
After hearing both sides, the bench directed the government to ensure that the police and the GHMC act strictly against the violators of the Covid norms. It observed that medical aid be extended to children as Nilofer Hospital is the only designated hospital to give medical aid to children, in case of infection.