E-Paper
UP Gate protest site stays aloof from Covid protocols
Even as farmers continue to protest against the three new central government farm laws, the Ghaziabad administration is found wanting in terms of Covid-19 testing and surveillance at the UP-Gate site
Even as farmers continue to protest against the three new central government farm laws, the Ghaziabad administration is found wanting in terms of Covid-19 testing and surveillance at the UP-Gate site.
While officials said that they had deployed teams offering tests, farmers say they did not trust the government.
The Supreme Court had earlier expressed its concerns over the number of people on Delhi’s borders and the Covid-19 situation. It had asked the Centre to apprise it of the measures taken to protect the protesters from the coronavirus disease.
The UP Gate protest had been occupied by farmers since November 28 and the gathering of a few hundreds then has swelled to more than 10,000 people, according to officials. These people are staying in temporary camps, tractor-trolleys without the luxury of following social-distancing norms.
The farmers at the UP-Gate site also seem apprehensive about Covid-testing and other protocols like wearing of face masks or maintaining social-distancing norms.
“They (district officials) had told us once about getting tested. We believe that the government wants to throw hurdles to derail our movement by one way or the other. It is now almost 40 days and there are no Covid-19 patients here. They talk about protection, but there are many rallies and even elections that were held across the country without paying any heed to Covid health protocols,” said Jagtar Singh Bajwa, a farmer leader from Uttarakhand.
“There is no corona here. We will support Covid testing but who will ensure that the test reports are genuine? The government must accept our demands on repealing the laws and giving legal protection to minimum support price. It has been weeks now that the government has not been able to make farmers understand, so they must withdraw the laws,” said Rajbir Singh, state vice-president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union.
The Supreme Court on Thursday had issued a notice seeking the Centre’s reply within two weeks.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde remarked: “This same problem is going to arise during the farmers’ protest. We do not know if farmers are being protected from Covid. What guidelines have you issued for prevention of such things?”
Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kalanidhi Naithani have sent their reports to the UP government, officials who did not wish to be named said.
Despite multiple attempts, Pandey nor his office did not respond to request for comment. Naithani too did not respond till press time.
Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer of Ghaziabad, said,”We deployed our testing-vans initially for 2-3 days when the farmers had come to UP-Gate but no one came for testing. We cannot force them to take up tests. We have deployed two teams, about 15-20 days ago, which have been going to the site for surveillance and medical intervention. These teams are basically for providing health facilities to any farmer having health complication.”
Dr Gupta could not provide figures of number of people who were tested or monitored at the UP-Gate protest site.
