Hitting the headlines

They were not cared for?

A COVID sensation?

The escape of ten coronavirus patients from the Rajiv Institute of Medical Sciences at Adilabad district on Saturday night was sort of a sensation that hit the headlines in next morning’s newspapers.

People are used to hear about prisoners giving the slip to police and running away from hospitals.

But, here are plain and simple people who quietly walked away from the ‘unguarded’ isolation ward at the prestigious hospital under the cover of darkness.

The reason given was: they were not cared for.

The escape of the coronavirus-affected persons triggered another controversy at the hospital next morning as the hospital superintendent accused the in-service doctors of setting up obstacles to fresh recruitment at the institution in connivance with local political leaders.

He was quoted as saying that the recruitment will not prejudice the position of existing doctors but would have nothing of it.

Only preaching

In tune with the adage “it is easier to preach than practice”, here are a couple of episodes of legislators who wronged officials while doing the same themselves.

At the mandal parishad meeting of Kodmial in Karimnagar district, Choppadandi legislator Sunke Ravi Shankar took a veterinary officer to task for attending the meeting without wearing a mask and made the MPDO to impose a fine of ₹1,000 on the officer. Interestingly, the MLA did not wear a mask at the meeting but only hung it around his neck.

In another such incident in Nagarkurnool district recently, the local legislator was also seen not wearing a mask but hanging it around his neck during inspection of Palamuru-Rangareddy project works. Such COVID norm violations have in fact become the norm of the day both in case of ruling party leaders and those of the Opposition since it is they who are going to people for one reason or the other.

Tough time

The city traffic police are apparently facing a tough time these days. Keeping a constant watch on movement of vehicles for traffic violations for hours at a stretch is in itself an arduous task. The traffic police are now entrusted a new responsibility of monitoring vehicle drivers who do not wear masks, made compulsory as part of coronavirus containment measures.

The city police have accordingly launched a special drive to identify the erring drivers and penalise them. The intensity of the drive could be seen from the way e-challans have been sent to 2,275 people who neglected the warnings. With traffic gradually rising after relaxations during Unlock 3.0, the police will be forced to be more vigilant obviously making their job tougher.

(With inputs from N. Rahul, B. Chandrashekhar and M. Rajeev.)