The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has recently remarked that the police machinery is under great stress to control the spread of COVID-19 and directed the authorities to allot non-policing duties to other government employees.
A single Bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge was hearing suo motu a news report by a Marathi local. It is about a woman nurse Shilpa Hiwale, who is deployed in the District General Hospital in the Mini Ghati Corona Ward at Chikalthana.
In the middle of the night, some neighbours knocked at the door of her house on the pretext of seeking drinking water. The neighbours threatened her husband and son with assault if she did not vacate the house and leave the area. The neighbours feared that she would bring coronavirus infection to the colony. The nurse approached the MIDC CIDCO police station which registered a non-cognisable offence and is investigating the case.
The High Court said time had come to direct the authorities to register cases against such residents who hold out threats to medical/paramedical staff. The police should consider such offences seriously and should not hesitate to initiate appropriate action against such miscreants.
The court noted, “The police machinery is under great stress and strain. In its endeavour to control the spread of COVID-19 , police personnel are deployed on the streets, at railway stations, in various localities and are even deployed for dealing with applications for seeking travelling pass and permissions to migrate. I am sure that the local administration and the State government are aware that several revenue officers and employees of the Revenue department are off duty. The State government should consider deployment of such ‘off-duty’ revenue employees, especially those below the age of 50, for the purposes of dealing with such activities and issues wherein the police personnel are need not necessary. For example, if migrant workers or displaced workers or students desire to return to their native places and are required to register themselves, the State government and the local administration can utilise such ‘off duty’ employees of the Revenue department, so as to ease the burden on the Police department,” the court said.