However, the Opposition Congress has been protesting against this decision, terming it as an attempt to hide information regarding the pandemic. (Representational)
Local leaders of Congress on Tuesday announced that despite the police not granting them permission, they would go ahead with their week-long token hunger strike from Wednesday onwards in protest of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) not disclosing names of persons testing positive for Covid-19.
The RMC had stopped revealing the names of those who contracted the viral disease on July 26. Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Udit Agrawal had said that the decision was taken after the civic body received complaints from people saying that declaring their names constituted a breach of their right to privacy. However, the Opposition Congress has been protesting against this decision, terming it as an attempt to hide information regarding the pandemic.
Leader of Opposition in RMC, Vashram Sagathiya, Gujarat Mahila Congress president Gayatriba Vaghela, Congress whip in RMC, Atul Rajani and senior Congress corporator Mansukh Kalariya met Rajkot Police Commissioner Manoj Agarwal on Tuesday, after an application seeking permission to stage a hunger strike outside the RMC headquarters in Dhebar Chowk was rejected. However, the commissioner refused to grant their plea for permission.
“We had assured police that we shall follow social distancing and take all Covid-19-related precautions during our hunger strike, yet we have been denied permission. In the interest of public health, us four have decided that we shall go ahead with our hunger strike from Wednesday onward despite police denying us permission,” Sagathiya told The Indian Express.
He added that declaring names of those testing positive for Covid-19 overrides the right to privacy.