PRAYAGRAJ: Expressing dissatisfaction over the measures taken by the state government to combat the menace of
Covid-19 during the forthcoming
Magh Mela in
Prayagraj, the
Allahabad high court has directed the state government to place before it
comprehensive guidelines regarding
precautions and measures which are being taken for the religious event.
Hearing a PIL relating to Covid-19, a division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar observed, “We are not satisfied with the guidelines which have been issued by the chief medical officer, Prayagraj. The court desires to have more comprehensive guidelines, which would ensure that people who enter the city of Prayagraj during the mela are in no manner going to bring in the infection of Covid-19.”
The court further said, “It is necessary to point out that it would be going to be a herculean task for the district and police administration to differentiate between pilgrims coming to Magh Mela and ordinary people coming to the city from outside and, therefore, there is needed quite an intensive exercise to identify pilgrims coming for bathing not in identified Magh Mela area only but other banks of the rivers
Ganga and
Yamuna in the city.”
Emphasizing on seriousness of the issue, the court further said, “Seeing the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, prima facie, we are of the opinion that unless the entire city is developed in a fort and entry into the city is absolutely banned in the month of Magh, except for those who are having “Negative RT-PCR” and then are again put to an
Antigen testing at the very border of the city with further
RT-PCR and complete tracking is followed, we cannot save the people of the city from getting infected by Covid-19.”
“We must acknowledge the continuous effort of our district and police administration and other frontline corona warriors in bringing down positive cases and containing the spread of pandemic during last two months and so we cannot permit all these efforts to go waste by permitting entry and camping of thousands of people from outside in the city area during the month of Magh,” the court added.
As per the direction of the court, the state government placed before the court the precautions and the measures which were being taken for the Magh Mela. Expressing dissatisfaction over these measures, the court said, “Upon the perusal of these guidelines, we find that mostly these are persuasive in nature and the Government has proceeded to frame guidelines only to apprise people who would be coming to Magh Mela to take up certain general safety precautions.”
So far as the monitoring of schools, colleges etc., are concerned, the court said that the state is leaving no stones unturned to see that the infection does not spread in the schools.
However, the court directed that the schools, colleges should be made to run with the most limited staff, students keeping in mind that pandemic Covid-19 is still around and vaccination is not in sight.
The court directed to list this case on January 7, 2021 for the next hearing.
The court passed this order on December 17 and it came to light on December 19.