New Delhi: The Gujarat high court pulled up the state government on Monday over the COVID-19 situation in the state and problems being faced by citizens, saying the reality is contrary to what the government claims.
“People now think that they are at God’s mercy,” a division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bhargav Karia said while hearing a PIL, taken up suo motu, on the coronavirus situation in the state.
After Advocate General Kamal Trivedi informed the high court about steps taken by the Gujarat government to tackle the COVID-19 situation, the court said the reality is quite different from what the government claims.
“The situation is quite different than what you are claiming. You are saying that everything is alright. But, the reality is contrary to that,” the high court said during the hearing held via video-conferencing.
There is a “trust deficit” among people, it observed.
“There is no shortage of remdesivir (a key anti-viral drug). Everything is available with you. We want results, not reasons,” the high court said, on complaints of shortage of remdesivir injections for COVID-19 patients.
It now takes “almost five days” for a person to get the RT-PCR test result, the court noted. “You did not upscale the testing facilities when you had time,” the bench said.
The Gujarat high court had on Sunday initiated a suo motu PIL over the coronavirus situation in the state, observing that media reports on the pandemic indicate that the state was heading towards a “health emergency of sorts”.
Through an oral order, Chief Justice Vikram Nath directed the high court registry to register a fresh suo motu PIL titled In Re : Uncontrolled upsurge and serious management issues in COVID control.
“The newspapers, news channels are flooded with the harrowing tales, unfortunate and unimaginable difficulties, unmanageable conditions of the infrastructure, the shortfall and the deficit of not only testing, availability of beds, ICU, but also supply of Oxygen and the basic medicines like Ramdesivir, etc.,” the order said, according to Bar and Bench.
The volume of news available on the issue made it impossible to ignore, the chief justice said. He cited reports from the Times of India and Indian Express on the issue.
Gujarat reported 5,469 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, its biggest single-day rise since the beginning of the pandemic, which took its caseload to 3,47,495.
The death toll due to the virus went up to 4,800 as 54 patients succumbed to the infection on Sunday, as per the state health department.
(With PTI inputs)