IAS officers’ report flags serious gaps in virus fight

Cremate all irrespective of religions, says VHP ■ ‘Migrants’ exodus a major setback’

Two days after the BMC’s revised circular that allowed burial of Covid-19 patients outside Mumbai limits, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) demanded that all bodies of Covid-19 victims must be cremated irrespective of their religion.

The VHP accused the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of armtwisting the municipal corporation to change its original decision that allowed only cremation of bodies.

Terming the BMC’s decision to revise its decision under political pressure, VHP spokesperson Shriraj Nair said, “Appeasement politics should not be done at the cost of health of people. We demand that the previous circular issued by BMC chief Praveen Pradeshi should be enforced and bodies of Covid-19 victims must be cremated.”

He also claimed that Agani Sanskar (cremation of dead bodies) has been scientifically proven to be effective in elimination of the virus. The whole world knows that if infected dead body is buried, it can transmit coronavirus in the soil and ground water sources,” he said further claiming that all the countries are performing Dah Sanskar (cremation of the dead body).

However, according to the WHO guidelines, the dead bodies of COVID-19 can be buried or cremated.

Family and friends of the deceased may view the body after it is prepared for the burial in accordance with their customs.

However, they should not touch or kiss the body and after viewing the body, they should wash hands thoroughly with soap and water.

New Delhi, April 2: The exodus of migrant workers, lack of public awareness, hospital preparedness and infrastructure are some of the serious gaps identified by IAS officers working across the country in a survey conducted by the Centre to combat Covid-19.

The Covid-19 national preparedness survey 2020 was conducted in 410 districts of the country from March 25-30 to attain a bird’s eye view of the governance challenges of the nation while coping with the greatest health crisis India has faced since Independence, a statement issued by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions said.

Minister of state for personnel Jitendra Singh, who released the survey on Thursday, said the findings point out that India’s response has been “coherent, purposeful and determined”.

“There was that national, state and district coordination which has been effective in combating the pandemic,” the minister said. Further, Mr Singh added that the survey has highlighted that the policy actions of the government like Janata Curfew, nationwide lockdown, economic package of Rs 1.7 billion, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announcements are steps which have received overwhelming support, the statement said.

A large number of IAS officers of five batches — 2014-18, who are working as district collectors and at other posts, participated in the survey.

Furthermore, 266 feedback application forms were submitted online on Covid-19.

The district collectors and officers felt that inadequate availability of personal protection equipment in district/sub-district hospitals is an area of concern, it addded.

“The availability of adequate isolation beds in district/sub-district hospitals was agreed by approximately 50 per cent officers; with 28 per cent disagreeing to its availability,” it said.

The non-availability of adequate ventilator machines in district/subdistrict hospitals is highlighted as an area of concern in the survey.

“DCs/DMs and other IAS officers (2014-2018 batches) strongly agreed or agreed that a lockdown needs to be enforced/made mandatory, with 96 per cent responding positively in this category” the survey stated.

“Hospital preparedness and infrastructure”, “quarantining and isolation facility”, “testing facilities”, “personal protection equipment”, “lack of public awareness”, “foreign travel history and contact tracing”are the most serious gaps identified by the respondents in their districts.

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