Social worker demands expert docs’ panel to control Covid-19 situation in Amravati

Nagpur: Blaming Amravati’s various administrative authorities for massive blunders while handling the Covid-19 pandemic that led to many fatalities, a petitioner appealed to the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court to constitute an expert panel of doctors to control the situation and also to boost RT PCR testing of patients.
An affidavit submitted in the HC by petitioner Shivaray Kulkarni through counsel Pankaj Navlani claimed that the civil surgeon in the district had made an incorrect statement to the judges’ on testing of Covid-19 contacts in the last hearing.
“The high risk contacts are not tested on many occasions. Amravati Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) affidavit shows that on two such occasions the swab samples of high risk contacts were not tested. In all, about 55 high risk contacts were not tested. In a district like Amravati, where the number of deaths due to the pandemic is more, such blunders are causing irreparable loss of lives,” he mentioned.
The affidavit was filed in Kulkarni’s plea pointing towards non-compliance of ICMR guidelines by the AMC. He contended that the district witnessed manifold rise in the positive cases with the highest mortality rate and the pattern being unique. While pressing for stringent measures to control the exponential growth of the deadly virus in Amravati, he prayed for directives to the respondents for activating the Disaster Recovery Task Force.
In his latest affidavit, the petitioner contended that mistakes on the part of various administrative authorities are costing human lives. “The mistakes that are being committed on very first positive case can’t be compensated by any means. Therefore, an expert panel of doctors is needed for conducting testing on a war footing,” he said.
In the last hearing, the HC had directed the AMC and the collector to file an affidavit explaining why all high risk contacts were not tested, and to fix accountability on the authorities. It also asked the AMC and other authorities to explore implementing the Bhilwara pattern in Amravati to contain the exponential growth of coronavirus.
It further directed the government to forward AMC’s proposal for 10,000 rapid antibody testing kits to ICMR at the earliest.
Lawyer moves court for building community hall on nazul land
A social activist and lawyer moved the civil court demanding a piece of Nazul land in Indora (Buddha Nagar) for construction of a community hall in the name of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar or Mahatma Jyotiba Fule. The court issued notices to the respondents, including the government.
According to applicant Priyadarshani Wankhede’s lawyer Nitesh Samundre, a big piece of Nazul land in the locality, which was earlier allotted to Laxmandas Bajaj and thereafter in favour of his son Girdhar, is lying vacant and not being used since last 40-50 years.
“Considering the population of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes residing in Indora (Buddha Nagar), the land could be used to build a community hall for them,” he contended.