BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday orally warned that it will order the closure of Metro construction work if Bangalore Metropolitan Corporation Limited (BMRCL) neglected to take measures for workers safety.A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Alok Aradhe ordered that BMRCL place on record the measures taken to protect workers from Covid-19, after its attention was drawn to the fact that 79 0f 211 workers at a residential site in Kannur in Bengaluru had tested positive.  

Calling the development “alarming, the bench said it was BMRCL’s duty to ensure workers were protected and do not become a source of Covid spread. BMRCL was also asked to clarify whether it was paying wages to workers who tested positive and whether they have been quarantined.Counsel for the petitioners had earlier informed the court that there were 58 sites where metro workers had been housed. Counsel for BMRCL told the court that standard operating procedures had been issued to contractors.

Equipment for hospital staff, pourakarmikas 
The bench noted that safety equipment was not provided to pourakarmikas, despite orders issued in March and April and that nothing was placed on record to show that infected pourakarmikas were being admitted to hospitals.  BBMP had 17,000 pourakarmikas, including 3,000 permanent ones, working in the city, and that no protective equipment was given to them, nor were there any measures to scan them for symptoms as mustering centres before they began the day’s work, the court was told.The bench then said that it was necessary for the BBMP to conduct random tests, provide PPE kits and thermal scanners, and sanitise equipment used by pourakarmikas.