Karnataka HC: Do govt staff have special testing facility?

BENGALURU: Taking note of the fact that public servants, who are working during the lockdown, are at risk of contracting Covid-19, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday asked the State government to inform whether there was any special facility for them to undergo Covid test. These include staff of the BBMP, courts, police and other departments.This is among the important directions issued by a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Alok Aradhe, after hearing PILs on Covid-19 issues.

Directing the state and BBMP to clarify whether an adequate number of doctors and nurses are available to manage the situation, the bench directed them to give publicity about data of real-time availability of beds, on the website (http://chbms.bbmpgov.in/portal/reports/). The bench also directed them to explain certain grey areas. First, the helpline 1912 to receive complaints on Covid is basically a helpline established by Bescom, which receives around 25,000 calls per day during the monsoon.

The bench directed the State to clarify how many dedicated lines are available to receive complaints on availability of beds, and the mechanism available to provide beds.The bench also directed them to clarify whether public or private hospitals will admit citizens immediately on showing the text message received on testing positive, without waiting for a ‘BU’ (Bengaluru Urban) code to be generated by BBMP.