Telangana High Court on Monday issued notices to Central and State governments seeking information on the measures being taken by them in the backdrop of rising cases of COVID-19 in the State.

A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, after hearing a PIL plea through video-conferencing, instructed the Centre and the State to file an interim report on the matter by Thursday. A complete report on the questions raised by the petitioners like personal protective equipment (PPE) to the doctors, medical staff and para-medical staff working in different hospitals of the State should be presented on or before April 15, the bench said.

The bench led by CJ also directed the State government to inform the concrete steps being taken by them to make available daily consumable items, including food and medicines, to the people. Telangana Democratic Forum convenor P.L. Vishweshwar Rao and doctor Cheruku Sudhakar, who filed the PIL plea, contended that the State government failed to provide adequate quarantine facilities to people who had flown into Telangana from abroad from February 1 to March 25.

The government also failed to provide PPE to the doctors and the medical staff attending on coronavirus suspects, the petitioners stated. Essential items like food grains, vegetables and medicines were not being supplied to people at reasonable prices. Labourers in unorganised sectors, beggars, orphans, street children, migrant labourers and nomadic tribes (who don’t have white ration cards) were left to fend for themselves, they stated.

They requested the court to direct the government to provide food items and masks to all such people in the State. The plea was posted on Thursday for next hearing.