A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA in Firozabad flagged the delay in providing food and water to people kept in quarantine and isolation centres in the district.

In a letter to the District Magistrate (DM) of Firozabad, MLA Manish Asija raised the issue of delay in serving food and water to people, including children, kept at the Agradham quarantine centre in the Raja Ka Taal area of Firozabad.

‘Desperate messages’

On May 2, Mr. Asija said he received desperate messages from people under quarantine at the centre, pointing out to him that they were yet to receive lunch even at 2:45 pm. What was worse, the quarantined people had not received any water in the May heat till 2.45 p.m., other than a half-litre of water rationed to each of them in the morning at breakfast, Mr. Asija wrote.

Mr. Asija also pointed out that lunch was not served in the isolation ward in the district hospital till 3:30 pm.

“...this condition of the people most-affected by the coronavirus [pandemic] is undoubtedly a cause for major concern,” Mr. Asija wrote in Hindi.

The legislator appealed to the the DM to probe the episode and take action against those in involved in the “gross negligence”.

Chandra Vijay Singh, DM-Firozabad, said the food supplied to the centre was delayed as the contractor responsible for it had suffered a death in his family.

“There was a casualty in his family. We took cognisance of the matter and supplied the food there immediately,” the DM said.

‘Action taken’

Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Asija said the administration had taken cognisance of his complaint and taken necessary action.

“The DM is working hard. Some [officials] are doing reasonable work but others are not and are in fact negligent,” Mr. Asija said, when asked if he, as a ruling party MLA, was unhappy with the way Firozabad was handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Till Sunday evening, Firozabad had recorded 147 positive cases of COVID-19, the district with the sixth highest number of cases in U.P. It has also recorded two deaths.