The Wuhan virus conundrum ceases to exist in the country. The Tablighi Jamaat and its hoodlums are to partly blame for the mess they have created not just by attending the ominous Nizamuudin Markaz event but by also fashioning chaos when being brought in the hospitals or quarantine centers. Exasperated by such callous behavior, few leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma and Yogi Adityanath have taken the fight to the super-spreaders who are proving to be a nuisance to the state.
Himanta, the Health, Finance, PWD, and Education Minister in Assam has warned caution to the Tablighi Jammat members that are residing in the Sarusajai Wuhan virus quarantine facility, Guwahati that it will be converted to temporary jail if people keep demanding to go out against medical advice.
“If anybody attempts to leave without the doctor’s clearance, then we will be forced to declare the Quarantine facility into a temporary jail and they will be kept here for three months under non-bailable sections”, the minister said.
We have to follow law in its totality and of course to address the concern of public health https://t.co/0VuU2V5MSi
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) April 22, 2020
The patients at the Quarantine facility had either attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi or came into direct contact with such persons. In a Facebook live session, the Jamaatis allegedly claimed that they were being served substandard food at the quarantine centre. They added that if they are not allowed to go, they will launch a hunger strike.
The minister told reporters that their complaints would be looked into but they will not be allowed to go unless the doctors give them the clearance certificate.
He even appealed to the hooligans “not to do Facebook Andolan (protest) but extend their cooperation by completing the required period of quarantine and maintaining the physical distance”.
Assam government has increased the quarantine period from 14 days to 28 days for those who had come into direct contact with Wuhan virus patients and Tablighi Jamaat members.
Himanta has been working round the clock to keep the facilities in top-notch shape and has even visited facilities on previous occasions to gauge the conditions.
With MoS @Pijush_hazarika I visited quarantine site Sarusajai Sports Complex to check sanitization, food quality and hygiene. Also met doctors to enquire about 166 people quarantined here.
I am deeply indebted to all those who have stood with Govt in this critical hour. pic.twitter.com/MfIAtCkrVc
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) April 11, 2020
While Himanta has started tightening the noose around the trouble makers in the north-eastern part of the country, down in the Hindi heartland–Yogi Adityanath and the Uttar Pradesh government has already started coming down hard on the Jamaati’s.
The authorities in UP have set up 34 temporary jails, including two for women, in the state to lodge over 350 Tablighi Jamaat members post the completion of their quarantine period for attending the mass-gathering whilst defying the restrictions imposed by the government.
As many as 295 people, including foreign nationals, have already been lodged in temporary jails, and out of the total prisoners, 156 are foreign nationals while the remaining 139 are Indians.
These foreigners who have been put behind bars are from Malayasia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sudan and Thailand.
In Lucknow, a temporary prison has been made at Kashmiri Mohalla Municipal Girls Inter College, Lucknow and four women foreign nationals are locked up here whereas four other foreign national women have been kept at a temporary jail in Bulandshahr.
All 156 foreigners were booked under charges of violating the Foreigners Act, indulging in religious activity on tourist visa and relevant sections of Epidemic Disease Act and Disaster Management Act.
Amidst the pandemic, Yogi Adityanath has shown his full spectrum range of potential. He had put the Moradabad stone pelters behind the bars by setting up the court proceedings at 3 AM.
He has even banned all the religious gatherings during Ramzaan as it would have given the virus a happy hunting ground to spread around. With the temporary jails, he has made sure that even in a calamitous situation, law and order are paramount and after treating the Tablighi’s he is sending them straight to the prisons to atone for the crimes they have committed against the doctors and humanity in general. The work done by both the CMs is commendable.
