RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Jan.6: Cells constituted to face the third wave of corona pandemic in the Jharkhand capital, where the positivity figure is about to touch 4000, is yet to come in mission mode.
This was reflected after a section of officers associated with different cells were called to know how effectively they are carrying out the responsibility given to them and how seriously they are taking their new responsibilities.
Three-day effort suggested that most of them are in carrying and forwarding mode while some of them are prompt and have taken their responsibility seriously.
Most pathetic is the seriousness of Covid OSD Cell in-charge additional district magistrate (law and order) Utkarsh Gupta, whose responsibility is to co-ordinate and manage the deputation of medical teams, magistrates, police officers and support staff besides others apart from creating a digital database of all the functionaries, who can be deputed as magistrates, doctors, nurses, sample collectors, fulfilling the manpower requirements of different cells, keeping track on duty hours to ensure that no person is doing Covid duty for more than 15 days in a row and similar others.
Gupta, who apart from being Covid OSD Cell-in-charge also heads the Home isolation and tracking Cell expected to maintain a real-time database of all persons under home isolation, did not take any interest when attempted several times to talk to him on the matter.
When met on December 4 at his office, he asked to call at 10am on December 5 for a time to talk about this matter. He shared his official number 9431101954 for a talk but he did not honour his word. Neither he took calls nor did he respond to Whatsapp messages sent to him from 10.15am on December 5 to 1.39pm today.
IDSP Cell in-charge, Anjana Das, who is expected to obtain data of positive and negative patients from all the apps and update district level spreadsheet in real time, responded to call when called yesterday in the afternoon but waited for the data till late evening. She expressed her inability saying she also depends on other agencies for the work.
Sub-divisional magistrate Deepak Kumar Dubey heading the containment, tracing and testing cell, responded well on December 4 sharing his responsibility to curb Covid-19 but latter he did not take a call to share what is being done to collect samples of common people who are staying in the city and those who are not coming in the city through airport, railway stations and bus stands. Dubey, who is also heading the dead body disposal cell, also could not be contacted for his comment on the number of Covid-19 infected bodies disposed of .
A similar situation was faced when contacted the head of the ambulance cell and call centre, Sudhir Bara who is expected to co-ordinate and manage ambulances for the purpose of Covid-19. He was unreachable when given a call today at 2.30pm to know how many ambulances the district administration has pressed into service to help Covid-19 patients. On December 4, when he was contacted and asked about the call centre he said he depends on IEC for the work.
Members of the information, education and communication (IEC) cell, Prabhat Shankar, did not take his call given twice from 1.25pm to 2.36pm. Two members of the cell expressed their inability to talk saying they were ailing. The role of IEC is important to spread awareness about wearing masks, maintaining social distance, frequent hand washing and other Covid safety measures through pamphlets, banners, billboards and audio messages.
Vaccination cell in-charge Ramvriksh Mahto and logistic and hospital cells in-charge Vishal Sagar appeared alert with all necessary information associated with his responsibility.
“Average testing is 25000 to 30000,” Mahto said promptly when contacted. Sagar also replied promptly when asked about whether he had reported anything regarding non-compliant hospitals to the Covid OSD Cell.
Dr Vikas Kumar, president of the Junior Doctors Association, supported the observation.
“Work has to be done to match the pace of infection rate but I observe this is not being done. Being a doctor I can arrange facilities but I am worried about common men,” Dr Kumar said.
A Kanke resident, who observed one of his family members recovering from Covid in home isolation, also supported the observation. “We received calls but not any support. I had heard that the administration provides medicine,” he said laughing.
