Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar seeks two weeks' time to comply with High Court directions

Hyderabad: The High Court division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy on Tuesday heard a batch of 16 public interest litigations filed by various petitioners with regard to Covid-19.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and Principal Secretaries of Health, Medical and Family Welfare, labour and other officials appeared before the Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan.

The Bench while passing a series of directions hoped that the directions of the Hon'ble Court will certainly comply with the State government within a period of two weeks and adjourned the batch of 16 PILs to 13-08-2020 directing all the above officials including the Chief Secretary to appear before it on August 13.

Hitam Application - keeping a doctor at home: CS

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar informed the High Court that the Telangana Government has already established the "Hitham Application" as a pilot project in 5 Districts. This Application tends to bring Doctors and Patients together wherein each Doctor is assigned with 50 patients and he will take care of the patients and their family members suffering from COVID-19. The aim of this app is keeping a Doctor at home, CS explained.

Nearly 173 medical staff which includes 140 Doctors (mostly retired ones) who intend to work from home under this pilot project have been enrolled, the CS informed. The High Court CJ Bench issued directions such as to include the age group clearly showing the age of the contacts.

The Chief Secretary gave an undertaking before the High Court that he will discuss the issue of publishing the information pertaining to COVID-19 cases with the Commissioner of Information and Technology and ensure that the critical data is published on a daily basis both in English as well as regional language newspapers.

Counsel for the one of the petitioners,Vasudha Nagaraj has suggested that since the poorest of the poor may not be able to afford being lodged at a hotel, perhaps the Government should think of utilizing the community halls/function halls, which are available throughout the cities and even the halls constructed by the Welfare Associations should be used as isolation centres/ COVID-19 care centres.

The Chief Secretary further gave an Undertaking that since there has been a constant complaint about admitting patients to different hospitals, the admission process being followed in the hospitals would be simplified. Moreover, the availability of vacant beds should be published in the media bulletins.

The government is in consultation with the private hospitals with regard to the prescribing of chargeable rates for various tests ex., MRI, CT Scan, etc., and further assured that within a period of two weeks necessary G.Os for prescribing maximum chargeable fees for these tests will be issued. Moreover, the Chief Secretary further assured the Court that in the next report, even the action taken by the Government against the private hospitals would be spelt out, CS added.

N S Arjun Kumar, counsel for one of the Petitioner informed the Court that the Union of India has submitted a set of guidelines with regard to the functioning of the private hospitals before Supreme Court in the SLP and the said guidelines issued by the Union of India should also be considered by the State government.

The Court directed that the State Government consider the guidelines issued by the Union of India while contemplating a scheme for supervising and controlling the functioning of the private hospitals in the State.

The Counsels for the Petitioners in the Batch of PILs further claimed that there is still fudging of figures in the media bulletin which is being released by the State government. The Court directed the Chief Secretary to examine this aspect. All the District Collectors should be directed to implement the orders by issuing a daily media bulletin in the prescribed format given by the Government.

The Chief Secretary further informed the Bench that there are 1085 containment zones which include GHMC and 2,941 teams have been deputed to keep a strict vigil on these containment zones. The High Court adjourned the batch of PILs to August 13.