At Least 1 cr compensation for poll officers who died of Covid-19 during UP Panchayat Polls: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday observed that the amount of compensation for polling officers who died due to Covid19 during Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh is very less and the compensation must at least be to the tune of Rs one croreA twojudge bench comprising Justice Siddharth Verma and Justice Ajit Kumar made this observation while hearing a Public Interest Litigation on the spread of the pandemic in the state and conditions of quarantine centresTo compensate the loss of life of the familys bread earner and that too because of a deliberate act on part of the State and the State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in absence of RTPCR support the compensation must be at least to the tune of Rs one crore We hope that the State Election Commission and the government will rethink the amount of compensation and come back to us on the next date fixed it observedOn the death of 20 patients in a hospital in Meerut the court observed that even if it is a case of suspected Covid19 death we are of the view that all such cases of death should be taken as Covid19 deaths and no hospital can be permitted to hold these cases as nonCovid19 cases so as to reduce the number of Covid19 deaths in that hospitalThe court directed the principal of Medical College Meerut to come with exact reports of those 20 deaths from Covid19 testing and SpO2 status at the time of admission which was recorded by the hospitalThe principal informed the court that prior to their death the 20 people were admitted to the hospitalWhile three of them had Covid19 positive reports the rest had been given antigen tests which turned out to be negativeAccording to him the 20 deaths cannot be attributed to Covid19 as those were only suspected casesOn complaints of people in the various districts regarding noncooperation of government and private hospital staff and the district administration the court directed that in every district of the State a threemember Pandemic Public Grievance Committee be formedThis committee shall come into existence within 48 hours of the passing of the order and necessary directives will be issued by the UP home chief secretary to all district magistratesNo details have been given regarding food supplied to the hospitals for Level 1 Level 2 and Level 3 categories The only fact stated is that Rs 100 is allocated per patient in Level 1 hospital It is a wellknown fact that Covid19 patients need highly nutritious food that should include fruits and milk daily We fail to understand how with 100 per capita budget the government is managing three meals in Level 1 hospital with 2100 required calories it observedAdvocate Amrendra Nath Tripathi had filed an intervention application on behalf of Sun Hospital Lucknow with a plea that in response to the showcause notice issued by the authorities a reply was immediately submitted on May 5 before 5 pm but no receiving was given to them by the authoritiesOn May 1 and 2 there was no supply of oxygen cylinders to the hospital by the district administration and totally false statements were given by the district magistrate about the oxygen supply to the hospital the advocate saidHe submitted that instead of considering the reply and verifying facts the Lucknow district magistrate rushed to lodge an FIR against the hospital to show compliance with the courts orderThe court directed the state to consider the same and get the necessary information from the district magistrate concerned and file an affidavit in reply to the intervention application by the next date fixedIn the meantime however until we finally decide the matter on the question of show cause notice and its reply and the action pursuant thereto taken against the hospital no coercive measures shall be taken against the Sun Hospital and its staff pursuant to the FIR lodged the court saidNow coming to the issue of medical treatment given to late Justice VK Srivastava the documents show that he was advised lifesaving drug Remdesivir However the papers do not show whether he was actually administered Remdesiver on the first day and the subsequent two days it saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever