Covid 19 is not showing any sign of slowing down in country, and yesterday it became a record of a sort, when more than 4000 cases were detected. Yesterday’s rise in number of cases in the country is approx 6.9% over the day earlier. Maharashtra is the state which has largest number of cases in the country, and yesterday also it added 1943 cases. The total number of cases in Maharashtra has already 20,000+ cases, and from this Mumbai region is having 13,739 cases.
I, being a Mumbaikar, am really disturbed by the situation in the city, which is also called the commercial capital of the country. It looks like Maharashtra govt and Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has already given up the city and left its fate in the hands of God, otherwise why the city would have suffered this fate.
As per my knowledge by end January 2020, everyone in India knew that the country will not be able to escape from the Covid 10 corona virus attack, but it looks like Maharashtra state took it very easy and did not do any concrete planning regarding how to tackle the virus and save the helpless citizens. Forget some ministers may not know about the topography of Mumbai, but BMC which is ruled by Shiv Sena is supposed to be aware of each and every thing about the Mumbai city & extended suburbs because they are controlling BMC for more than 3 decades. Were they not knowing about the thickly populated areas like Dharavi, some parts of Worli, Bhendi Bazar/Mohd Ali Road & adjoining areas, and many more thickly populated areas across the suburbs? They knew before hand that in these type of areas it will be next to impossible to maintain social distancing but no safe guard measures were thought, and their attitude was we will look into it when the problem arises.
The cases which are being added every day in large numbers, are basically due to people could not maintain or they did not want to maintain the social distancing, otherwise how suddenly that cases are increasing. Second thing knowingly that these areas will be affected by virus very easily, no one in BMC or Maharashtra govt gave it a thought of testing them at an early stage. If a person who is infected by virus is tested at an early stage, and quarantine immediately, then other people who are coming in contact with him/her can be saved. The main problem here was that no one from the govt ever thought to procure the testing kits in the month of Feb, when the corona virus had not hit India that badly. By the time April came, then these people sitting in govt realised that we will need lakhs of testing kits and facilities to test thousands of people daily. But by the time they could arrange for the testing kits, the virus started spreading in densely populated areas.
One other thing, today is the 48th day of lockdown in the country, but in Mumbai city, there is no major affect of lock down, people are moving freely on the roads, driving their 2 wheelers and 4 wheelers on the roads without any major work, and police has started becoming a mere spectator as they have been treated very badly by administration as they do not have proper working conditions, safety kits; and when they see their own colleagues being affected by virus or even succumbing to virus and dying, their attitude changes after all they are also human.
Same is the case of medical staff in the govt hospitals, where doctors and nursing staff were working initially, and at some place till now, without the proper safety dress and other kits suitable for medical staff. The Directorate of Medical Education & Research had urged private doctors to enrol for Covid 19 cases and work at govt/civic hospitals otherwise their registration will be cancelled. More than 1100 private doctors have responded and are willing to work in this cause. On the other hand, a doctors’ association, Association of Medical Consultants (AMC) wrote a letter to CM Uddhav Thackeray, highlighting the chaos in matters of testing, certification of Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) kits, arbitrary deployment of doctors in Mumbai Metropolitan region. The AMC which represents around 12,000 Specialist and Super Specialist doctors said doctors are willing to serve for the cause but processes on the ground need to be streamlined in all of Mumbai Metropolitan region. The AMC further added in the letter that PPEs are not available in sufficient quantities in many civil hospitals like KEM, Sion, Nair & others. The letter adds that outside the city limits many private hospitals had been taken over by civic administrations/govt without proper Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and doctors posted on ICU duty without any insurance and remuneration.
During the lock down there have been turn rounds by Govt/BMC and classic case was when BMC allowed the liquor shops to be opened in the city, which was already in Red zone, the unprecedented rush and crowd at liquor shops gave the social distancing the great miss. At some places queues were very long and without and social distancing, and no police to control. So by the end of 2nd day govt had to withdraw the order and closed all liquor shops till further order. Afterwards it was revealed by the media that the govt did not consult with Police dept regarding this. There was one more order regarding opening of Electrical repair shops and hardware shops, the order said that only one shop from each category in the late will be allowed to remain open. What happens when there are more such shop in a lane.
Lastly I have not seen as single photograph of CM or Minister or MLA or Corporator having interaction with general public in recent times. When they expect all the govt servants in essential services like Policing, Bus Drivers/Conductors/Health officials etc to interact with public, why these so called our representative can not come into open and explain what they are doing for public, as their duty. No they will not come out, as they want to remain safe in their den, but these people equate themselves with public servants and want to have life term pension, even they be in the office for one term of 5 years.
As a true Mumbaikar, my heart burns when I see my city going to dogs.
Waiting for your views/feed backs/comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
11th May, 2020
R. N. Mungale.
Mumbai is in for trouble.