Wednesday Brief

Covid 19- The situation is becoming from bad to worse in India . It is so happening that India is adding 10,000 cases in 2-3 days, and death toll is also raising day by day. From the states Maharashtra is worst affected, and in Maharashtra Mumbai is with highest number of cases and deaths. Now why from all the cities in Maharashtra, Mumbai is so badly affected, one can attribute this to 2 main reasons- first one is high population density in slums, for which at this stage no one can do anything; the second main reason is lopsidedness of people and departments who are handling and controlling city  of Mumbai. From the onset of corona virus covid 19 till today there have been so many goof ups and flip flops by the authorities like Govt of Maharashtra, Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has resulted in so many guidelines and instructions which many times were contradictory.

One of the Mumbai’s tabloid newspaper today came up with the  list of flip flops, some of which I would like to share with you all:

1 Testing Protocol– The BMC’s testing protocol has been revised at least six times since the beginning of this pandemic. While some of this may be due to evolvement of knowledge about corona virus, but increasing number of cases tend to indicate that there may be other factors also. Till few days back testing protocol went on changing.

2 Essential Shops– The state govt on 19^th March announced a partial lockdown in the city, which made people rushing to shops to buy essential items, this led to shortage of items and increased in price as nothing was clear about the shops which sell grocery and other essential items, whether they will be shut or in operation on daily basis. Then on 26^th Mar govt gave the order that shops selling essentials including medicines can stay open for 24 hours. However the local police stations started putting pressure on shopkeepers to close the shops in afternoon. Now in all parts of city the essential item shops are open for few hours in a day.

3 Passes for essential vehicles-when the govt announced state wide locked down, the availability of essential items hit a slow down as trucks, tempos and heavy vehicles came to stand still. Then 24^th March, the transport authorities decided to introduce stickers/certificates for vehicles transporting essential items, and said owners of the vehicles have to apply for these at RTOs. But even after having the valid stickers/certificates the drivers of the vehicles were harassed by police, asking them to produce police permission. It took so many days to streamlined this process.

4 Passes for passenger vehicles– Although the passes for vehicles carrying essential were issued but it was not until 1^st May that it announced similar passes for people dealing with emergencies. The lack of clarity meant that many people applied for emergency passes but were stopped on the road and were told by police that passes are meant for only transporting essentials. Then there is a separate pass for interstate movement, which has to be obtained from District Collector(DC) or other nodal authority along with a medical certificate stating that the travelling passenger/s are virus free.

5 Burials– Earlier it was decided that any one who dies with Corona virus then his/her body will be compulsorily cremated, irrespective of religion. As burial grounds were in thickly populated areas, the decomposition with  body bags will take more time to de compose. But on very same day order was amended , it said ‘if someone insists to bury the dead body, the permission will be granted if burial ground is big enough, and grave should be 8 to 10 feet deep’. This led to lot of chaos. Before the order was issued World Health Organisation (WHO) had already clarified, which said both option burial or cremation both options are hazard free, if safety procedures are followed. Still there are occasions when residents of near area refuse to allow burials.

6 School fees– In the beginning of lockdown, the Education Department issued a resolution urging school management  to be lenient and sensitive towards plight of parents during lockdown and should not insist on fees. As tone of resolution was not very strict, schools refuse to comply, but deadlines of paying fees got extended. Many schools refused/restricted access to e books if fees was not paid. Finally, on 8^th May the department issued another resolution, which allowed parents the option of paying in monthly or quarterly instalments.

7 Liquor Shops/other shops– On 3^rd May, govt issued an order allowing liquor shops across the city to re open. The order also said that up to five shops selling non essential could open in every lane. Next 2 days saw huge crowds outside liquor shops (without any social distancing) all over the city. Police had to restore lathi charge in many areas to control the crowd. Then on 5^th May , BMC issued orders to shut liquor and non essential shops. But the very next day, then  Municipal Commissioner (Praveen Pardeshi- now shunted out) issued an order allowing stand alone electronic and hardware shops to remain open from 7^th May.

8 Trains for migrant workers– After central govt allowed migrant workers to travel by train to their home town, the state govt issued a complicate procedure, which needed migrant worker to spend hours for procuring fitness certificate from listed doctor and submit the same to police station with their Aadhar cards . The workers were asked to apply in group of 25/30, with all papers. This led to big chaos. On 3^rd May, the BMC said health certificate from any registered Medical Doctor. On 7^th may, another notifications was issued saying that medical certificate is not required.

9 ST buses for migrant workers– On 9^th May govt decided to use ST bus service for migrant workers to home town, and this service will be free, and workers will be transported to state’s border. But on 9^th May this order was reversed and it said there would be no free travel, and charges will be based of Rs 42 per km for full bus.

So friends, you can see from above there are so many flip flops by the state govt and BMC, that you are left wondering what is happening in the state, where left hand is not knowing what right hand is doing. There is total lack of coordination between various departments, and different departments are issuing orders without consulting other departments and even police, which has led state and Mumbai city in such a mess.

What a let down for one of the best state in the country, and Mumbai the commercial capital of the country.

Waiting for your comments/feed backs/views.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

13^th May 2020.