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Uttarkashi official suspended for booking toddlers over quarantine violation
The suspended official, identified as Girish Singh Rana, an assistant engineer in the irrigation department, was deployed as Covid-19 magistrate by district magistrate (DM) Ashish Chauhan in Chinyalisaur area of the district to ensure home quarantine of people who return to the district, said local government officials.
A government official on Covid-19 duty decided to investigate over phone a violation of home quarantine by a group of people who returned to their village in the Uttarkashi district from Haryana, and in the process booked a six-month-old and a three-year-old, resulting in widespread outrage -- and his suspension.
The suspended official, identified as Girish Singh Rana, an assistant engineer in the irrigation department, was deployed as Covid-19 magistrate by district magistrate (DM) Ashish Chauhan in Chinyalisaur area of the district to ensure home quarantine of people who return to the district, said local government officials.
“The children and their parents returned to their village in the area along with 47 others and were asked to remain in home quarantine as a precautionary measure. However, it was found that they didn’t follow this. The Covid-19 magistrate Rana was asked to prepare a report of the violators for necessary action,” said Chauhan.
Rana should have visited the village, but, according to Chauhan, conducted his investigation over phone. ” He didn’t get details about the age of the violators due to which the names of the two children were included in the list. Based on the report , a local revenue police officer booked 47 people including the two children for violating home quarantine and endangering lives of others while four others were booked by the regular police for the same.”
Villagers came to know about the case registered against the two children and raised strong objection on it. The district administration ordered an inquiry into the incident.
“During the inquiry when the revenue police officer asked Rana, he said his report was based on details collected over phone , without any ground visit. Considering it as a serious dereliction of duty, I immediately suspended him on April 2,” said Chauhan.
A government official familiar with the matter said since the report is “bogus”, the cses against the adults would be “quashed” too.
According to the district administration, about 5,700 people returned to Uttarkashi during the pandemic. Of this, 2,900 are no longer being monitored; 2,400 are still under surveillance after completing their home quarantine; and the rest are still under home quarantine.
