Bhopal: Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha on Thursday slammed top health officers - many of whom tested positive for coronavirus - for breaching the set guidelines to tackle the spread of coronavirus and suppressing information which was to be reported to authorities.
The rebuke came in a response to the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) on the issue of gross violation of the Covid-19 protocols put in place.
Taking cognizance of media reports and a complaint from Tankha, the MPHRC had served notice to the Chief Secretary of the MP government and later after receiving response from Bhopal collector, forwarded the same to Tankha for his reaction.
Through advocate Ravi Kant Patidar, Tankha submitted a reply to the commission on Thursday.
The senior lawyer primarily objected to the fact that it was the Bhopal collector who had submitted the reply and not the CS office as directed by the commission.
To make matters worse, the CS office only endorsed the reply of the Bhopal collector to the commission and did not file a separate response.
The respondent also pointed out that the government reply did not specify the time of the receipt of the Covid-19 test report of senior officials as named in media reports.
The reply also ‘suppressed’ the information on the exact date on which said officers were admitted to isolation wards in hospitals, claimed Patidar.
To add to matters, several health officials were in home quarantine until senior government officials slammed them and asked them to be hospitalised after testing positive.
The respondent also accused the district administration of withholding the name of the official concerned, who was responsible for ensuring that officers who tested positive were hospitalised immediately after the test report was received by them.
The lawyer categorically accused then Principal Secretary Health of not reporting the arrival of her son Bharat from US to Bhopal on March 16 and also not following the mandatory 14-day quarantine for him.
“Bharat Govil was named in a relevant list issued by the state government,” said Patidar in the reply adding no mandatory caution poster was pasted on Govil’s residence until April 5.
After her son’s arrival from US, the PS should have avoided meetings with Chief Minister and other officers at Mantralaya, claimed the respondent. Media reports had also suggested that Govil kept attending meetings at Mantralaya despite having certain Covid-19 symptoms.
The lawyer accused the woman officer of not being hospitalised after testing positive on April 4 and instead recorded health bulletins from home on April 4 and 5 that too without putting on any mask on the face. “A picture also went viral on April 6 in which Govil is seen taking treatment at home in open in violation of Covid-19 guidelines,” said the reply and the picture was also annexed with the reply sent to the commission.
Senior Health officers including Dr Ruby Khan and Dr Upendra Dubey too did not report to the hospital in isolation after testing positive immediately, the respondent claimed.
The lawyer claimed that former Health Director J Vijay Kumar, who was believed to be the first to test positive for coronavirus in the health department did not disclose to the administration that he had visited Bangkok in February and also did not go into self quarantine.
The reply also accused state government officers of negligence while failing to act against erring Health officials under sections 7 and 10 of the MP Epidemic Diseases, Covid-19 Regulations.
Many, including top officials, in the health staff had tested positive for Covid-19 in Bhopal. The Health directorate is being run by a handful of employees as test report of 90% of the staffers and their families are yet to be received five days after samples were taken.
It is reported that out of the 165 patients reported in Bhopal, 95 are from the health department. The department too has issued an order for staffers to report for duty only after they test negative for the virus.
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