HC pulls up State, observes Covid deaths caused due to incomplete preparations
Thursday, 24 June 2021 | PNS | Nainital
The Uttarakhand high court pulled up the state for the 700 page affidavit if filed in the court, observing that it was misleading and stating that the deaths from Covid-19 in Uttarakhand were caused due to the incomplete preparations of the government.
The HC division bench of chief justice RS Chauhan and justice Alok Kumar Verma made these observations and issued directions to the state while hearing on public interest litigations related to the health services in the state and planned resumption of the Char Dham Yatra in the state. Chief secretary Om Prakash, Finance secretary Amit Singh Negi and Tourism additional secretary Ashish Chauhan were also present virtually during the hearing. The government submitted a 700 page affidavit regarding which the HC stated that it appeared to be misleading.
The court also observed that the government had itself ignored Covid guidelines and its enforcement was absent during the Ganga Dussehra recently when many bathed in the Ganga at Har Ki Paidi in Haridwar. The court has sought the government’s response on various points.
The State’s health secretary has been directed to explain how many villages in the state are not linked by road, the distance of such villages from the nearest roadhead, the total number of ambulances with the health department, the number of ambulances with 108 emergency service, the places where all these ambulances are deployed, the number of ambulances functioning and inoperational, the status of implementation of the recommendations by the high powered committee of child experts for the third wave, the total number of hospitals and wards and the paediatric wards therein for treating children, the government hospitals still lacking paediatric ward and the status of oxygen concentrators and other facilities in primary health centres at village level.
The chief secretary and Tourism additional secretary will appear in the court on June 28 and explain the decision taken by the state cabinet regarding the Char Dham Yatra. The matter will be taken up for hearing again on July 7.
