India News | HC Orders Proper Fogging of Allahabad to Check COVID Spread

Allahabad, Sep 8 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Monday ordered the city municipal corporation to undertake proper fogging and sanitisation of the city to check the COVID-19 spread in it.

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A bench of justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar also asked the Allahabad Municipal Corporation's health officer to ensure proper fogging of the city.

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“The foremost task that has to be done by the Nagar Nigam is to see the health of the city,” observed the bench while issuing the direction for its sanitisation.

The bench also asked the municipal corporation to come up with a proposal by September 14 to set up at least one COVID clinic for every two wards in the city.

The bench issued these directions while hearing a public interest lawsuit seeking better facilities at quarantine centres in the state.

Fixing September 14, 2020 as the next date of hearing, the court directed that by the next date, the Nagar Nigam should come up with the proposal to set up at least one clinic per two wards in Allahabad city.

“After the clinics are established, the state shall provide regular staff and doctors for the clinics,” the court added.

As per the court's directions, the State Legal Services Authority submitted a list of 24 advocates to be appointed as court commissioners to monitor different wards of the city.

The court directed that after taking advocates' consent, they may be assigned different wards to monitor them as court commissioners and report if the residents of those wards are adhering to the social distancing norms and wearing face masks, besides undertaking other anti-COVID precautions.

The court said the commissioners would submit their reports of violation of social distancing norms by residents to zonal officers of their wards, who in turn would forward it to senior superintendent of police through the municipal commissioner and finally to the court as well to take appropriate action against the violators.

“These reports, needless to say, should be supported by evidence. The advocate commissioners would also examine their wards along with corporators report bad drainage in their areas. If the corporators do not cooperate, a report to that effect may also be submitted to the court,” the bench said.

If the surface of any road in the ward is found to be bad, the advocate commissioners shall also report about the same to the municipal commissioner and also to this court, the court further directed.

The advocate commissioners shall also see that the municipal corporation chalks out plans for opening public clinics in every ward for providing initial first-aids, checking blood sugar and blood-pressure etc, the court directed.

In the present times, these clinics may also be used as sample collection centres for COVID-19 tests.

The Uttar Pradesh government counsel also agreed that as and when clinics are opened, doctors from the Provincial Medical Services shall be appointed there.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)