The Haj Bhavan on Thanisandra Main Road in Bengaluru has now been converted into a quarantine centre for about 100 people who are said to be facing the threat of COVID-19 infection, based on the Centre’s list of nearly 1,500 people who may have participated in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West, New Delhi.
However, while some among them, including 15 from Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan, are those who had attended the congregation, a good number in the lot say they neither belong to the Tablighi Jamaat nor attended the meet. As the list was prepared based on mobile numbers traced in the vicinity of Nizamuddin West during the period of the congregation, many who did not attend the meet have also been quarantined, including a man from the Jain community.
Those who have been “picked up” include persons who boarded a train from Bengaluru and alighted at the Nizamuddin Railway Station, who are residents of Bengaluru but working in Delhi and residing near Nizamuddin, and those who had travelled to Ajmer and visited the Nizamuddin dargah but not the congregation. A Railway Travelling Ticket Examiner of Nizamuddin Express is also among those quarantined here.
“I do not belong to the Tablighi Jamaat. I went to the Nizamuddin dargah to offer prayers as I do regularly when I go there to purchase ready-made garments from Chandini Chowk,” said Banaswadi resident Munnawar Basha. Those who belong to Tablighi Jamaat do not believe in visiting shrines and dargahs, he added. “I returned on March 24 and do not have any symptoms so far. I am worried that some of us who are healthy may catch the infection here,” he said. Sources said at least three of the foreigners have developed symptoms. Swabs of 30 people have been collected for tests from the Haj Bhavan, sources said.
Natiq Sultan Sharief, a resident of Sultanpalya, said he had gone to Ajmer dargah. “On my return trip, I came to Delhi and went around sightseeing. Then I boarded a train to Bengaluru from Nizamuddin. I do not know why I have been brought here,” he said.
Another person, a staffer of Parliament who resides in the vicinity of the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz and had come to Bengaluru to meet his family, has also been quarantined at the Haj Bhavan. “They called me and told me to be ready in 15 minutes. Some of us have not even been able to get our regular medicine,” said the person who refused to be named.
District Health Officer G. Srinivas admitted that most of those brought to the Haj Bhavan had not attended the congregation.
Letter to CM
Members of Arogya Rakshana, a group of health professionals and patient right activists, have written to the Chief Minister and top State Health officials on the woefully inadequate quarantine infrastructure at the Haj Bhavan.
Sylvia Karpagam, a public health researcher who is part of the group, said housekeeping staff and volunteers at the bhavan have not even been given personal protection equipment and proper safety gear.
Lack of amenities
Authorities at the Haj Bhavan in Bengaluru were caught unawares on Wednesday evening when the State government converted the building into a quarantine centre without any preparations.
People were shifted without making any “quarantine protocol” preparations and the authorities had to scramble to arrange for food and other amenities. There was no provision for drinking water, soap, sanitiser, and so on.
Gangaram Baderia, State nodal officer for quarantine facilities, said the Minority Welfare Secretary A.B. Ibrahim has been given the responsibility of Haj Bhavan. Mr. Ibrahim said, “The State government will make all arrangements and we are in the process of setting them in place.”
Syed Aijaz Ahmed, Karnataka State Haj Committee nodal officer who is in charge of the Haj Bhavan, said, “As per the government’s direction, we have the responsibility of providing accommodation. We have also arranged food through local NGOs.” He said health and administrative protocols are not under his purview.
