Uddhav Thackeray presumed everything can be hunky-dory if he keeps Sharad Pawar - the hyped Maratha strongman - in good humour. Himself a lousy administrator and who believes in manipulation more than anything else Pawar has utterly failed not only Uddhav - a misguided ambitious father - and of course the state of Maharashtra.
But SICKULAR MEDIA will look the other way thinking mere closing of eyes would save a government in Mumbai which came to power chiefly guided by selfish motives.
Mumbai is in mess vis-a-vis Corona crisis and where is Mr Uddhav Thackeray?
The mess is reflected in the tweet from Deshmukh - "As many as 1,03,345 offences registered under Sec 188 of Indian Penal Code since the lockdown leading to 19,630 arrests and seizure of 55,784 vehicles".
There were also reports that more than 1,000 cops in the state got infected by the coronavirus and there were allegation that over 90 per cent of migrant workers in Mumbai did not receive government-sanctioned ration during lockdown. Thus, there was little to guess that a huge number took to the streets seeking to return to northern states via Madhya Pradesh.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who says: "Over 1000 COVID19 cases have been reported in busyShivaji Nagar area in Mumbai in last 15 days. I demand immediate army deployment in these areas".
A sort of helplessness has already dawned on a section of officials. "There is sense these days and
it is growing that we have to live with Covid-19," is the refrain.
Maharashtra government on its own extended the lockdown till May 31 -- hours before such a formal announcement was made by the federal government on Sunday evening.
"Lockdown 4.0 will come into effect tomorrow (May 18) and will be valid till May 31. There will be some relaxations in the fourth phase," the state Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta said.
There are other issues and complaints. “In some cases, we feel sorry for poor sanitationin hospitals. It may not be wrong to say those with symptoms and those who testedpositive have been huddled like cattle," remarked a social worker.
However, authorities are putting up a brave face and say Mumbai will soon get more makeshift hospitals.
Meanwhile, the central government in Delhi on Sunday extended the Covid-19 lockdown for two more weeks till May 31 with certain relaxations.The government has allowed inter-state movement of buses and private vehicles with the consent of the involved states and the move will greatly ease public transportation help migrant labourers on the roads. The night curfew, between 7 pm and 7 am, will continue.
Domestic and international flights and metro rail in cities will continue to remain shut and sowould be shopping malls, cinema halls, schools, colleges, hotels and restaurants, and religious and political gatherings.
The Uddhav Thackeray regime thought BMC could handle things for Mumbai.
Many hasty decisions were taken by BMC, which only resulted in a rapid deterioration of the situation.
For instance, in mid-April, BMC changed its testing rules, wherein high risk asymptomatic contacts of Covid-19 patients were not to be tested. This was a suicidal step. Former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis had raised a protest against the decision....
The spike in Mumbai cases in the last two weeks is directly attributable to this alteration. The administration tried to bring down numbers artificially, without realising they were playing with fire.
A parochial outfit Shiv Sena, which often courts politics of Hindu fundamentalism, is running a coalition regime along with Congress party and a regional outfit Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Authorities maintain things are going beyond control as there is shortage of at least 1000 hospital beds by each day.In some hospitals, Covid19 patients were kept near dead bodies and such photos and videos have gone viral in social media and television reports.
Local city based social workers who visited some state-run hospitals told UCAN that patients are forced to share beds and medical workers often leave the ill-fated patients on their ownor on the hands of their relatives.
Most health staff in Mumbai and adjoining Thane are "overworked".
The Mumbai civic body often flouted established norms and did not even conduct test on medical staff and doctors and thereby increased the possibility of positive cases as time passed by since March. On March 17 - the casualty figure was just one due to Covid19 but by May 16 - the figure jumped to1135.
Worst of all, the pandemic has hit Asia's largest slum dwelling Dharavi and at least two well known hospitals Lokmanya Tilak Hospital in Sion and KEM are the hotbeds for transmission of the killer virus.
When Rahul Gandhi directs his ire against PM Narendra Modi, little does he realise that his party is also responsible for the mess in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra.
And thus he got a few rebuttals.
“The geniuses at Niti Aayog have done it again. I’d like to remind you of their graph predicting the Govt’s national lockdown strategy would ensure no fresh Covid cases from tomorrow, May the 16th,” tweeted the Congress leader.
NITI Aayog has denied this.
"Blatant falsehood & lie. I have never tweeted this nor is this my slide. Please don’t attribute it to me & kindly withdraw your tweet," wrote NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
Came in another strong reaction from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
FM asked @RahulGandhi - why he didn't help migrants. She said: "Was this the time? Wasn't that drama? Why are you wasting their time? Why didn't you carry their suitcase or their children".
Ends
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