WHY SHOULDN’T ACTION BE TAKEN AGAINST STATE EC OVER COVID SPIKE: ALLAHABAD HC

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court on Tuesday took note of reports of deaths of 135 government employees on panchayat election duty and directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to explain why it failed to check violation of Covid-19 guidelines during the ongoing local body elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The court also asked the SEC to explain why action should not be taken against it and 27 SEC officials, including prosecuting those responsible for such violations.

state is witnessing four-phase panchayat elections that began on April 15 and will end on April 29.

“It appears that neither the police nor the election commission did anything to save the people on election duty from getting infected by this deadly virus,” the order read.

Fixing May 3 as the next date of hearing, the court also directed the state government to place before it details of beds for Covid-19 patients, medicines and oxygen supplied in various major hospitals in UP.

The high court also directed the state government to ensure a health bulletin is issued twice a day in major government hospitals. The hospitals were asked to use large screens to give details of patients and their oxygen saturation levels. Uttar Pradesh recorded 32,921 cases and 264 deaths on Tuesday, taking its tally to 1,153,097 and 11,678 respectively.

“If even after seven decades of our attaining freedom ..., we are not able to provide oxygen to our citizens, it’s a matter of shame,” observed the bench of justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar.

The court said authorities concerned must ensure proper management of doctors, medical and paramedical staff. “The situation overall in the major cities of Uttar Pradesh has gone very chaotic for the current Covid surge...,” the bench said.