On A Day Rajasthan-Delhi Order Lockdowns, COVID-Singed UP Still Seems Confused, Undecided!
Lucknow, April 19 (TNA) On a day the Delhi and Rajasthan governments announced lockdowns in their respective territories, questions are now being asked on why is the Uttar Pradesh government, where situation has worsened in the past one week, not following suit?
Well, the entire top brass of the state government, including the chief minister Yogi Adityanath are down with COVID and there seem to be little semblance of governance but for the routine, daily press notes of "COVID review meeting with Team 11" that are released by the government's PR arm.
There is nobody to explain the situation and no body even to listen to the loud calls and wails of the people, who are either themselves dying after Coronavirus infection due to paucity of oxygen, missing life-saving drugs, or not to be seen ambulances. The media has lost four scribes and many lie in medical facilities and isolation at homes, struggling to get hospital beds and oxygen.
The high n' mighty are pleading for help, putting out their frustration vide tweets and leaked letters but someone, of course the decision makers, are yet to take a call on break-the-chain lockdown.
What are they waiting for? Looks like for the four-phased Panchayat elections to get through. Video grabs of polling in different parts of the state, specially Pratapgarh today, show how brazenly and dangerously the laid down protocols for COVID appropriate behaviour are being violated.
Social media is full of desperate please for help - from oxygen, ambulances to hands and token for cremation of the dead! Few in the government barring law minister Brajesh Pathak, additional chief secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal, who is down with COVID himself, are the ones trying to push cases in whatever little they can do in conditions prevalent across the state. The healthcare sector has collapsed, the bureaucracy is infected with COVID, and the powerful are nowhere to be seen.
The opposition too is not demanding for lockdown. While they are coming down heavily on the state government and its inept handling of the situation, they too seem to be more interested in the Panchayat polls that saving precious lives. Thanks to initiatives by some sane individuals, many trading bodies in the state capital and some other cities have voluntarily closed shops.
The Allahabad High Court which is itself hit badly by the Corona pandemic, losing many young and experiences lawyers in Prayagraj to the deadly virus, has suggested to the government to consider a long lockdown in badly hit districts but here again this too seems to be falling of deaf ears! The silence and the delay, with every passing minute, is costing innocent lives and is endangering millions. Please break the chain for god sake and order lockdown. Votes and elections can wait, the death dance of COVID will not!