Delhi HC asks govt to state readiness to combat third wave of Covid

During the hearing, amicus curie, senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao, highlighted the issues regarding the functioning of the delhifightscorona.in website of the Delhi government and said that certain information has not been updated since September

The Delhi high court on Thursday sought to know from the state government whether it would be in position to render its services and sources on short notice in the unfortunate event of a third Covid-19 wave.

The court was hearing a bunch of pleas, including one by lawyer and petitioner Rakesh Malhotra on the need for better facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

“In the light of the present state of the pandemic, our present concern is only whether the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) would be in a position to render their services and sources on short notice in the unfortunate event of the country experiencing a third Covid wave.

“Our purpose is to only sensitise both the governments of the need for them and readiness on the possibility of the third wave hitting us. We hope and expect that this aspect of information from all relevant portals,” a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh.

The court was hearing a bunch of pleas, including one by lawyer and petitioner Rakesh Malhotra on the need for better facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the hearing, amicus curie, senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao, highlighted the issues regarding the functioning of the delhifightscorona.in website of the Delhi government and said that certain information has not been updated since September.

He also said that the information regarding EWS (Economically Weaker Section) beds was still not available on the said website and that the process of several web pages for translation to Hindi was incomplete. He also pointed out that while some hospitals were updating the availability of beds on the website, others were not doing so.

However, senior advocate Rahul Mehra for the Delhi government told the court that the website was updated as recently on November 22. The court asked the state government to file a status report on this aspect.

The bench was also informed by Kanwaljeet Arora, member secretary of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), that it has filed the application for over 4,000 people who are to get ex-gratia from the Delhi government for losing their family members during the second wave of the pandemic.

The court sought a status report from the government on various aspects of preparation, including the ratio of doctors versus patients to ascertain whether the authorities were well-prepared for an increase in the number of cases.

The matter will now be heard in February, 2022.