With the swell of new coronavirus cases continuing in Telangana amid growing criticism over low testing, the High Court on Wednesday pulled up the state government directing it to submit a detailed report by July 17.

Hearing a petition on lack of medical gear for the frontline warriors and low testing, the High Court questioned the AG on how many PPE, N95 masks and other equipment were provided to the doctors and medical health workers in the combat against Covid-19. The Telangana High Court directed the State government to inform the court by July 17 as to how many PPE kits, N-95 masks and gloves were so far given to the doctors, nurses and paramedical staff involved in treating Coronavirus-affected people.

The petitioner argued that the KCR government has failed to supply the required number of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and other protective gears to the doctors and other medical staff despite the court directions. The court had also taken note of the low COVID-19 testing rates in the state. The High Court questioned the state government on how many tests were conducted and how many samples were taken during a month’s period between May 23 to June 23.

The court also asked the KCR government to increase corona testing by using Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) in view of rise in Covid-19 cases in the state. Further, the court also directed the government to submit a report on the efforts initiated to trace primary and secondary contacts of the infected people. It also warned that if the state government fails to submit a detailed report by July 17, it will be forced to summon the Chief Secretary, Principal Health Secretary and Public Health Director for not following its earlier orders. The court warned that the CS, Principal Health Secretary, Public Health Director and health commissioner will have to personally appear before it on July 20 if it finds the government’s report unsatisfactory.

This is the second time that the state government had to face the ire of the High Court. Earlier in May, the High Court directed the government to inform the court as to how doctors and medical staff working in government hospitals tested positive for Covid-19 though the government has claimed that it has provided PPE kits, N-95 masks and gloves to them.

In April, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had claimed there was adequate stockpile of PPEs, N95 masks, gloves and other medical gear for the frontline warriors even as an increasing number of doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, police personnel and health workers contracted the virus. However, the Telangana High Court hearing a petition in May had pulled up the KCR government over acute shortage of medical equipment. “How could the frontline warriors contract the virus if the government supplied medical equipment to combat the pandemic,” the court wondered.

Telangana has been reporting three-digit growth in corona cases. The state health department had confirmed 945 new cases of COVID-19 in Telangana in the last 24 hours, raising the state’s total number of confirmed coronavirus infections to 16,339. Of the 945 new cases, a whopping 869 positive cases were reported in GHMC limits. After the reopening of the economy, the coronavirus spread has been alarming with higher positive-test cases and increasingly strained hospitals. In the last 24 hours, seven succumbed to Covid-19 taking the total fatalities to 260.

The Telangana High Court on Monday took a serious note of the tragic death of a pregnant girl from Jogulamba Gadwal district who was denied treatment and made to run from hospital to hospital as she hailed from Covid-19 containment area.

The court took suo moto notice of a letter written by a lawyer. Through the letter, the advocate argued that the pregnant girl 20-year-old Jenila and her new-born died as they did not get treatment at the right time. In the letter, the advocate placed the facts of the case before the court. The advocate contended that the pregnant woman had to go through a traumatic experience of being referred to six different hosptials and was forced to travel 200 kms. He contended that the doctors were too scared to admit without conducting Covid-19 tests.

She was first taken to Gadwal District Hospital after she complained of labour pains, but was referred to another hospital. After waiting for more than an hour for an ambulance, her husband Mahendra shifted his wife to Mahabubnagar Government Hospital. Doctors at the government hospital referred her to Koti Government Maternity Hospital as she was found to be anaemic with high blood pressure. At the Koti Government Maternity Hospital, doctors asked her to first get Covid-19 tests as she hailed from a containment area in Jogulamba Gadwal district. Jenila was taken to the Gandhi Hospital for Covid-19 tests. The tests showed Jenila negative for the tests. She was later admitted to Petlaburj Maternity Hospital for delivery and gave birth to a baby boy who was shifted to Niloufer Hospital where he died during treatment. As Jenila’s condition turned critical, she was admitted to the Osmania General Hospital where she died.

The heart-rending story moved the High Court and pulled up the state government for not taking non-Covid-19 cases seriously. The court ordered the state government to ensure that the ambulances are available to non-Covid 19 patients and admit pregnant women and other emergency cases without causing any kind of inconvienence to them.

Expressing concern over the high concentration of corona positive persons under the GHMC limits, the Telangana High Court on Friday sought a report from the state government on the measures being initiated in Hyderabad where the number of containment zones is high.

Hearing a batch of petitions filed by various individuals via video-conferencing, the HC directed the Hyderabad police department to exercise restraint in dealing with the general public during the complete lockdown. The court sought a detailed report from DGP Mahender Reddy on the reports of excesses by the police personnel on the people while enforcing the lockdown regulations.

The High Court directed the government to submit by April 24 on the testing facilities and the gamut of measures the government had initiated to contain the spread of the virus in the State, especially in Hyderabad as city has the highest number of containment zones.

A total of 135 containment zones have been demarcated in the city based on positive cases, which have been barricaded to prevent contact between those inside with outsiders.

Health Minister Etela Rajender in a recent press meet attributed the high numbers to the Tablighi Jamaat attendees and their secondary contacts. The health minister said that 640 of 700 so far tested positive for Covid-19 in the state are attendees of Tablighi Jamaat conclave in Delhi and their contacts. Barring 50-60, all others found infected were returnees from Markaz in Nizamuddin, their family members and contacts, he said.

On Friday, IT & MAUD minister directed the ministers and officials concerned to strictly enforce the lockdown regulations in all the corona cluster containment zones. With more than 135 containment zones in Hyderabad limits, KTR seems to leave nothing to chance. With the lockdown entering the second phase, KTR asked the officials to intensify screening in clusters of the virus around the city and put in place restrictions, even harsher than the lockdown, which would stop the virus from spreading beyond containment zones.

K T Rama Rao directed the officials to ensure that not a single individual steps out of their residences and barricade all the colonies in the containment zones so that people stay indoors. Further, he asked the officials to ensure doorstep delivery of essentials such as groceries, milk and vegetables, arguably the biggest reason why people are forced to leave the relative safety of their homes.

The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the state to file its reply to a petition seeking protection of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff in the face of attacks on medical personnel during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Telangana High Court served notices to the state government, including the health ministry and the DGP asking the state to respond immediately on the action initiated against the attacks on doctors and medical staff at Gandhi Hospital. Taking suo moto notice of a letter written by an advocate who raised serious concern against the attacks on health workers, the High Court asked the state government the measures initiated to protect the medical staff in discharging their duties in the fight against the corona virus.

Last week, hearing a petition filed by Telangana Jana Samithi vice-president Prof. P L Visheshwar Rao, the High Court directed the state government to submit an interim report by April 9 and a complete report by April 15 on the measures it had initiated with regard to providing required personal protective equipment to doctors, paramedical staff, nurses and ward boys to combat Covid-19, availability of medicines, food to patients, quarantine facilities to foreign returnees.

The petitioner contended that the state government had failed to provide standard graded protective gear including N-95 masks, testing kits, sanitizers, personal protective equipment for all medical professionals and health workers involved in the treatment of corona virus patients. A bench headed by justices R S Chauhan and A Abhishek Reddy took up the matter for hearing.

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday took serious note of traders and vendors selling essential commodities at exorbitant prices taking advantage of the lockdown declared by the state government.

The High Cout took suo moto notice of reports carried in various newspapers about the traders in the state selling essential commodities at higher prices by cashing in on the outbreak of Corona virus.

As per the directive of the government, only one person from each family is allowed to step out of their homes to buy essentials from 7 am to 6:30 pm. Taking advantage of the lockdown and subsequent panic that stock will be running out, vendors have increased vegetable prices fourfold in Rythu Bazar and other markets in the city. It is learnt that several traders are hoarding stocks to further hike the prices.

The High Court may ask the State government to take measures to control the prices of essential commodities.
The State government had set up a panel comprising officials from the Civil Supplies, Agriculture and Horticulture and Marketing department to monitor the markets in the state and take action against those who sell essentials at a higher prices. Despite these measures, the traders were selling essentials at exorbitant prices.

The Telangana High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Telangana state government and revenue authorities concerned and asked them to file counter affidavits in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed challenging allotment of five acre prime land to Tollywood film producer and director N Shankar at a nominal price of Rs 5 lakh per acre at Shankarpally area of Ranga Reddy district.

A division bench of the High court has asked the state government and other authorities to file their counter affidavits in four weeks time.

It may be recalled that director N Shankar has close association with TRS chief and Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Shankar supported KCR during Telangana statehood agitation between 2009 and 2014. He also actively participated in Telangana statehood agitation.

Shankar produced and directed “Jai Bolo Telangana” film in 2011 during the peak of Telangana statehood agitation.

The film played a key role in igniting Telangana sentiment among people and helped KCR to intensify the agitation.

After Telangana State was formed and KCR became CM in 2014, Shankar submitted a proposal to state government seeking land allotment for construction of a studio.

The Telangana cabinet headed by KCR approved allotment of land to Shankar in June 2019 for a nominal price of Rs 5 lakh on city outskirts, where the current market rate is in crores.

This was challenged by few individuals in the High Court who filed PILs against TS cabinet’s decision.

The Telangana High Court asked the Chandrasekhar Rao government whether there is any need for demolishing existing buildings in Secretariat in Hyderabad. The court also asked whether the newly acquired Andhra Pradesh buildings are not enough to meet the additional requirements. The court is hearing arguments put forward by the Additional Advocate General and also the petitioner’s advocate.

A person named PL Visweswara Rao made the petition saying that the Government is unnecessarily demolishing Secretariat buildings by making wasteful expenditure of public money. When the court asked why it should interfere with administration, Rao’s advocate argued that Telangana is already in debts and the court should intervene in public interest.

Additional Advocate General told the court that the existing Secretariat buildings do not have enough safety facilities as per fire department reports. The court pointed out that such reports came up only after the Cabinet decided to construct new Secretariat buildings. AAG later said that the government was intending to construct a big building complex where all departments could be located in one place.