HYDERABAD: Telangana High Court on Wednesday found fault with the state government for not putting in place measures to deal with the anticipated third wave of Coronavirus.
Criticising the government for not holding a meeting of Statutory Experts Committee constituted under National Disaster Management Act so far despite alarm bells of the third wave ringing, a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice T. Vinod Kumar observed that the pandemic will not refrain from spreading as the state is unprepared.
“In some states, cases are increasing day-by-day. New variants of the virus are being traced. For the time being, there are no such instances in our state. But it could spread any time at a fast pace,” the bench pointed out.
At one stage, the ACJ asked the state government to be serious about the issue. He underlined that the court had on August 8 directed the government to submit minutes of meetings of Experts Committee constituted to suggest the necessary action plan for dealing with the pandemic. But advocate general B.S. Prasad submitted on Wednesday that the meeting has not yet been held.
“We are not saying that the government is not doing anything. You have to do many things in view of reports that the third wave may severely hit children. But you are doing only small things. You should be more attentive. We have several times asked you about the paediatric infrastructure available in the state to deal with Covid cases. But we have not got any information about it,” Justice Ramachandra Rao stated.
The court slammed union government for not yet taking a decision on including life-saving drugs required for treating Covid-19 patients in National List of Essential Medicines. It sought immediate action on this crucial issue by the next date of hearing.
The Acting Chief Justice said more seriousness is required on part of both central and state governments in being pro-active and taking faster decisions, rather than wait for untoward incidents to occur.
The court asked the advocate general to furnish a report with details of current positivity rate in different districts of the state on the basis of RT-PCR tests. It also directed him to furnish the proceedings of expert committee, sero surveillance report and paediatric infrastructure available to tackle the third wave of Coronavirus.
The next hearing on the case will be on September 22.
