The High Court of Tripura on Friday initiated a suo motu litigation in the public interest over the COVID-19 situation in the State. A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Akil Qureshi passed the order. It fixed seven days for the State government to reply to 15 questions related to the State government’s response to COVID-19.
Though the court did not specify, senior lawyers understood the move to be based on media reports on the shortcomings and lacunae in the treatment of COVID-19 patients and the containment of the pandemic.
“The High Court has also the responsibility towards society and people. We welcome the order,” Tripura Advocate General Arun Kanti Bhowmik told mediapersons.
Tripura has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases and virus-linked deaths in northeast India after Assam. The death toll reached 172, and 17,260 infections were reported in the most recent health bulletin.
All deaths, except a few, have occurred in the dedicated COVID-19 treatment facility at the GBP Hospital here.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who also holds the Health portfolio, said that his government was trying its best to contain the pandemic and provide treatment to the affected. He regretted that a few newspapers were “publishing negative news on the current health situation”.
“History will not forgive those spreading lies and canards,” he said while speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a Special Economic Zone at Sabroom in south Tripura. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal also spoke virtually on the occasion.
Meanwhile, a two-member Central team arrived here on Thursday to assess the COVID-19 situation firsthand and provide necessary advice to the State’s health officials.
The team, headed by Dr. Satyajit Sen, Senor Regional Director in the Regional Office of Health and Family Welfare in Kolkata, will stay in Tripura for 10 days.