KASARGOD: Following the fiasco over CPM’s district conference, collector Bhandari Swagat Ranveerchand went on leave till February 1. District information officer Madhu Soodanan said she had applied for the leave much earlier and had nothing to do with Friday’s developments.
A section of media and political leaders had criticised her for withdrawing a circular banning public functions in areas with a test positivity rate (TPR) above 30%. They said the order was withdrawn to facilitate the CPM’s three-day district conference in Madikai, which started on Friday. However, the CPM wrapped up its conference Friday night after the High Court of Kerala ordered the party to reschedule the event after 10 days because of the rising cases of Covid in the district.
Following the High Court order, the collector limited the attendance to public functions to 50 persons for the next seven days. Earlier in the day, the collector put out a statement on Facebook saying she was not pressurised to cancel the order. “We issued the order based on the state government’s guidelines,” she said.
The state government decided to impose restrictions based on hospitalisation and not TPR. Bhandari endorsed the new policy saying the number of admissions in Kasaragod was not high to deserve a complete ban on events.