Govt decision to review spread of virus in 11 distts under scanner
New Delhi: The Centre's decision to identify only 11 districts for fast-tracking COVID-19 management strategies has come under the scanner as the government has "missed" several other districts which are in the 'complete' grip of coronavirus.
However, as per Union Home Ministry, all the 11 districts –seven in West Bengal, two in Maharashtra and one each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh –have been selected as the condition of COVID-19 in these districts are either critical or on the verge of getting critical.
The districts that been identified are Kolkata, Howrah, 24 Parganas North, Medinipur East, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong in West Bengal and Mumbai, Pune in Maharashtra, Jaipur in Rajasthan and Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Justifying the decision, MHA's joint secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said, "The purpose of the team is to provide support and assistance to states in their endeavour to combat COVID-19. The teams have been "very carefully" constituted so that support can be provided from the aspects of health administration and disaster management. The states will benefit from it."
As per the Union Heath Ministry's district-wise data available at its website, there only three districts of West Bengal –Kolkata (105), Howrah (46), 24 Parganas North (37) –have recorded a sizable number of COVID-19 cases, while other four districts have not reported corona cases even in double digits.
Comparing the district-wises cases of other others states, it came to notice that several districts of Uttar Pradesh such as GB Nagar (80), Lucknow (77), Saharanpur (53), Meerut (69), Hapur (15), Kanpur (22), Shamli (22), Sitapur (14) have reported more number of cases than several districts of West Bengal, still no team has been sent to monitor the effective implementation of the lockdown in the state.
Surprisingly, Nalanda, the home district of Bihar's chief minister Nitish Kumar, has become the latest
example of government "apathy" as all high-level district officials, including district magistrate, superintendent of police, have been put under isolation after chief medical officer of the district tested COVID-19 positive.
As per experts, some of the districts of Bihar such as Nalanda, Siwan, Patna, Munger, etc should have been included in the list prepared to assess the containment and management guidelines of the Union government.
Similarly, there are several districts in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, etc that have reported a high rise in COVID-19 positive cases.
Some of the districts of Gujarat that have reported an alarming number of positive cases include Ahmedabad (405), Vadodara (116), Surat (48), Bhavnagar (26), Gandhi Nagar (15), etc. Notably, a few days ago, violation of lockdown provisions was reported from Surat when a large number of migrant workers had gathered on streets in the textile city of Gujarat.
