HC raps Gujarat again over handling of Covid-19 cases, says govt getting caught 'unaware'

The Gujarat High Court has once again taken a critical view of the Vijay Rupani-led state government on its handling of coronavirus pandemic which is spreading in cities. As Rajkot city in Saurashtra region is emerging as a new hotspot after Ahmedabad and Surat, the high court has noted that despite "working hard" the government is getting "caught unaware" as it gets into action only after the situation worsens."

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"We take cognizance of the deteriorating situation prevailing in Saurashtra, more particularly, the city of Rajkot etc. We expect the state government and the authorities of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation to ensure that the situation does not go out of their control. The line of action and model adopted in the city of Ahmedabad should be made applicable in all other major cities, more particularly, the big cities like Vadodara, Rajkot etc," the division bench of chief justice Vikram Nath and justice J B Pardiwala said in an order on a suo motu public interest litigation which the court is hearing on Covid-19 situation prevailing in the state. The bench has been constantly monitoring the situation, taking cognisance of media reports and instructing the government to take appropriate steps.

The bench said that the government has been "working hard" to control the pandemic but "we are constrained to observe that despite putting best of its efforts, the government has been getting caught unaware and it gets into action only after the situation worsens. In other words or rather in simple words, we may say that the state government should now stop playing on the back foot."

The court gave an example of how only after the situation in Ahmedabad became serious, the government woke up and gave "extra attention" to bring the situation under control. The order says that the same situation was repeated in Surat and the officials had to rush from Gandhinagar.

"Today Rajkot and Jamnagar are the two cities which are hit extremely bad. This situation could definitely have been averted if timely action and precautions would have been taken. Unfortunately, the same was not done and it has resulted in a situation
beyond control," the the bench has stated in the order while directing the government to issue appropriate orders to curb the spread of virus.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani hails from Rajkot where Member of Parliament C R Patil had toured for the first time after being appointed as state BJP president. He held several major rallies attended by thousands of party workers on August 20-21. He also visited several other cities of Saurashtra where covid-19 norms including social distancing were thrown to the winds.

Till Wednesday, Rajkot mayor Bina Acharya, collector Ramya Mohan, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Abhay Bharadwaj, his brother Nitin and many Congress leaders have tested positive for the virus.

They are among over 7000 infected people. The city has over 2000 active cases and 115 deaths. There are reports of under-reporting of the infection as well as deaths, which the government has denied. The state has overall reported over 1.16 lakh positive cases out of which 96,000 have been discharged and 3247 have died.

The high court has criticised the politicians, without naming any individual or party, and said, "The political leaders of the state are expected to lead their masses and not by themselves flout the norms or the rules and regulations prescribed to combat the pandemic. The flouting of the norms at the end of the political leaders would set a bad example for the people at large, and the same may prompt the people to defy the norms."