HC tells Prayagraj DM to look into involving corporators

Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court on Friday directed the district magistrate of Prayagraj to look into the feasibility of involving the corporators and various voluntary organizations which might be ready to render their services in enforcing the Covid-19 guidelines.
Hearing a PIL seeking better condition of quarantine centres, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar further directed the DM of Prayagraj to produce before the court the manner in which he would direct the corporators in actively seeing that people wear masks and maintain social distancing. “On the next date, we would also see to the viability of implementing this modus operandi of including the corporators in other cities as well,” the court added.
The court fixed August 31 as the next date of hearing and said, “The involvement of voluntary organizations would be in addition to the work the district administration is already doing.”
The court directed the Nagar Nigam of Prayagraj to take all possible actions to remove all stray cattle and stray dogs from the city. Stray cattle which are a great cause for accident and stray dogs which are on many an occasion carry rabid are of a great concern to the city.
“In this time of pandemic when people are worried about their safety, stray cattle and stray dogs must compulsorily be removed to avoid any nuisance,” the court further added.
During the course of hearing, while taking cognizance of a letter petition, the court directed the district magistrate of Kanpur Nagar to get an enquiry done in the matter alleging that the body of a person, who had died of Covid-19, was not being handed over to his relatives because the hospital was demanding Rs. 14.50 lakhs even though they had already paid Rs. 11 lakhs to the hospital.
The court directed the registrar general of the high court to provide this order to the district magistrate of Kanpur Nagar, along with a copy of the letter petition.
Today (on Friday), the chief secretary of the state sought extension of time granted to him to comply with the order of the court dated August 25.
While granting further time to the chief secretary, the court observed, “We hope and trust that valuable steps would be taken by the next date fixed and a complete road map would be there by which public movement could be minimized. We expect stricter time schedules for shops would be there and also every effort would be made to minimize conglomeration of people in public places and in public vehicles. Here it may be mentioned that even though timings of various commercial activities may be substantially reduced but medical shops and dispensaries might be an exception.”