With many bureaucrats indisposed, Madhya Pradesh lands in corona soup; CM Shivraj Chouhan’s job gets tougher

Despite all possible medical and clinical measures, coronavirus continues to expand its footprint in Madhya Pradesh. In the last 24 hours, as many as 22 new positive patients were identified in Bhopal. They include 16 officials of the health department. With this, the total number of patients in the state has touched 263.

Monday also marked a deplorable incident in which some persons attacked policemen in the capital. The fault of the cops was that they asked them to go home and not javascript:void(0)violate the lockdown.

After Indore, the overall situation in Bhopal has taken a serious turn compelling government to order total shutdown. Total shutdown comprises no movement on roads. If somebody is seen on streets he will be arrested forthwith. All types of supplies excluding milk and medicines have been banned.

These steps were announced by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan himself. Chief Minister warned that police cases will be registered against those who hold community feasts or any sort of gathering in the state. “We have already imposed complete lockdown in Indore, the hotspot of Covid-19 in the state. Today I have instructed complete lockdown of Bhopal for three days to control the coronavirus spread in the state. During this period no activity will be allowed even at night”. Chouhan said during a video conference with officials at Mantralaya on Sunday. Additional district Collector Satish Kumar S issued the complete lockdown order under section 144 CrPc, effective Sunday midnight. It doesn’t give any duration and says the clampdown will be in force till further orders.

Though the government has imposed several strong measures it is facing a unique problem caused after it was learnt that several health personnel have been hit by Covid-19. Perhaps Madhya Pradesh is the only state in the country where a string of top bureaucrats, leading battle against the Covid-19 pandemic are in the grip of the virus.

While several senior health officials including two IAS officers have tested positive in just 48 hours, as many as 14 senior IAS officers spearheading the mission are in quarantine or home isolation. Sources say the administration is putting a Plan B in place in case the need arises. The officials, either hospitalised with Covid-19 or in quarantine as possibly infected, have rich experience in the health sector — one of them is an MD and another principal secretary health —have the long experience needed to handle such a crisis. Samples of 120 officials have been sent for tests after the first IAS officer tested positive on April 3.

With so many of them confined indoors, the administration had to act fast to ensure the battle lines against Covid-19 don’ falter. Chouhan praised health and police officials who caught the infection in the line of duty.

The government has prepared a second line of action in case any officer gets infected” he said. Sources said that a second line of senior bureaucrats has been drawn up to step into the battleground in case a backup plan needs to be put in operation. A press statement said the next-in-line has been drawn up according to ICMR guidelines as a contingency measure, and urged people not to give credence to “viral social media rumours”.

A plan B may be necessary because the ones who have tested positive attended very high level meetings and came in contact with hundreds of government employees and medicine and medical equipment dealer.

Among those reportedly chosen to step up if needed are Rajesh Rajora, Ashok Barnwal, Mohd Suleiman, Chandrashekhar Borkar, S. Dhanraju, T. Ilayraja and Vivek Porwal.

As per protocol, samples of several IAS officials and ones working with them have been collected and sent for tests.

A number of senior bureaucrats of other departments are in home isolation. Areas such as Char Imli and Shivaji Nagar, which house bungalows of senior bureaucrats and politicians, have been declared as containment areas.

CM house and Raj Bhavan also fall in a containment zone. No one is allowed in and if anyone wants to go out, SDM’s permission is needed.

The government issued a press release on Sunday to say that one of the IAS officer and a relative are adhering to guidelines on prevention and containment of coronavirus.

While number of affected persons has increased in Madhya Pradesh including Bhopal, there is happy report of total recovery of six patients. Those who recovered include three in Jabalpur, one in Gwalior and two in Indore.

The first Covid-19 positive cases were reported from Jabalpur in the state on March 20, when four patients were tested positive. These four included a jeweller from the city, his wife and daughter: all three had returned from Dubai and a student who studied in Germany and had returned recently. Of the four, the second test reports of the three – jeweller, his wife and the student – tested negative and they were discharged.

Dr. Deepak Barkede, nodal officer for Covid-19 in NetajiSubhash Medical College, Jabalpur said, “The second reports of three patients were negative and they were discharged. The report of the fourth patient is still positive; her samples would again be sent for tests. Besides, the hospital isolation of two more patients is over; their samples would also be sent for tests on Monday. If found negative, the samples would again be sent for second test and depending on the report they too would be discharged from the hospital”.

Meanwhile, two pleasant reports have come from Indore. Several leading Muslims in the city joined hands and put up advertisements in local newspapers apologising for the attack on a group of doctors. It may be recalled that more than half a dozen Muslims have been arrested in connection with the attack. According to another report, Muslim young men helped perform the last rites of an old lady, who had died of COVID-19. She was very popular in her neighbourhood in the city and was known as ‘Mata Durga’. The Muslim young men had to chip in when her neighbours showed reluctance to join her funeral for the fear of contracting the disease. (IPA Service)