MISSION JAMAAT: Modi puts Uddhav on the job
Prime Minister Narenra Modi on Wednesday morning called Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and urged him to step up tracing, testing and treatment for those who had returned from the Tablighi Jammat gathering.
Modi’s call comes at a time when more than 300 persons, including at least a dozen Indonesians who had attended a congregation of Tablighi Jammat in New Delhi, have been traced in various cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Yavatmal.
Thackeray reportedly promised to take every possible step to curb coronavirus spread in the state.
The government has set up 2,164 Containment Teams which have so far visited a record 7,80,000 people across the state.
Thackeray subsequently held dialogue through video conferencing with the district collectors and police chiefs and directed them not to allow any religious congregations in the state like the one held in Delhi last month.
The administration should ensure there is no festivity and that no religious gathering is allowed in Maharashtra.
"I will speak to organisers personally, but till the corona crisis persists, public gatherings will not be allowed at any cost," the CM said on the eve of Ram Navmi.
He also appealed to those who had attended the Delhi congregation and travelled back to Maharashtra to come forward and get themselves medically checked. He also directed officials to ensure that people do not crowd markets amid the lockdown.
"It has been found that citizens are misusing facilities like visiting grocery shops and purchasing other essential commodities, which are allowed to remain open 24 hours," he said. The CM also felt the need to regulate the vegetable markets.
"Either move the markets to open spaces or decide on their timings," he said.
Thackeray said that senior citizens living in old age homes as well as migrant labourers should be taken care of. He called for providing special care for senior citizens and differently-abled citizens.
The CM also said that services of ASHA workers and anganwadi sevikas as well as Home Guards be requisitioned to ease the load on health workers.
The chief minister’s directives are crucial as in Mumbai, 32 persons, including 12 Indonesian nationals who had attended the congregation, have been put under quarantine. Twenty of them -- all Indian nationals, some of them from Rajasthan and Gujarat -- were traced at a mosque in the western suburbs. They were placed under quarantine on the mosque premises after medical examination, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Manjunath Singhe. The mosque was also sanitized by civic officials.
In Mumbra in neighbouring Thane, 25 persons who attended the gathering have been traced, a local official said. None of them were found to have any medical issues, he added.
"We received a list of total of 182 people from Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur who had attended the gathering at Markaz Nizamuddin and 106 of them have been traced," said Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune divisional commissioner.
"Of these 106, 94 people were placed under quarantine and their samples would be tested," he said, adding that the process to track down remaining people was underway.
As per the list, 136 of these people are from Pune, five from Satara, three from Sangli and 17 and 21 from Solapur and Kolhapur, respectively. In Pune district, 70 people have been traced, Mhaisekar said. Fifty-four persons who had attended the gathering in Nizamuddin were tracked down in Nagpur and put under quarantine, said Municipal Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe. Thirtyfive persons were identified in Ahmednagar. As many as 29 of them are from Indonesia, Tanzania, South Africa, Ghana and other countries, a local official said.