No SOS for we the people

By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

It is a very well-known fact that in our country our leaders have two different sets of rules. One set is exclusively for themselves and their families and the other is for all the people who place them on their pedestals of power and pelf ! That is why we are seeing almost every one of them who has tested COVID positive getting admitted to the plushest suits in the very same private hospitals that they spit at through their speeches and statements. Of the nearly fifteen of them who have got infected so far in our State, just one of them has chosen to get treated in a Government Hospital. Is this not shameful hypocrisy? 

Our netas accuse private hospitals of exploiting the public and impose all kinds of impractical and un-implementable restrictions and guidelines on their functioning, all in the interest of the people. Without giving them any concessions in taxes, loan interest rates or water and electricity charges, they decide how much private hospitals should charge their patients and how much they should pay their staff. They decide how many beds they should reserve for Covid use under Government Welfare Schemes and how many they can keep for themselves. 

At the slightest whisperings of protest against these unfair stipulations and restrictions, the netas with their army of civil service bureaucrats intimidate private hospitals with threats of cancellation of licences, seizure, closure, takeover, disconnection of electricity and water supply and what not. And, all this they do only to distract the attention of the public from their complaints about the poor performance of the Government in managing the pandemic. 

The private healthcare sector that actually caters to nearly eighty percent of the health care needs of our nation is projected as the cause for all the ills that afflict health care across the length and breadth of the country. If this is so why don’t our netas get themselves treated at Government Hospitals when they fall sick and set a noble example of their faith and trust in a system that they have themselves created? And, why don’t their slogan-shouting fans question them about their double standards?

Keeping our Cops Safe

In the midst of this raging COVID pandemic while all others have a choice in keeping themselves safe, there are a few categories of people who simply have no choice. They necessarily have to expose themselves to a much augmented risk of catching the COVID infection because of the nature of their work. They are our COVID Warriors — the doctors and para-medical personnel, the civic workers, the surveillance and support staff and the Police personnel. 

Among all these, if we leave aside the Police personnel, the rest of them cannot keep themselves away from being in the thick of the COVID battle. That is why we are seeing a very high incidence of infection in them and there’s simply nothing that anyone can do about it. But when it comes to our Police personnel, I feel that we are exposing a great many of them to a great deal of unnecessary and certainly avoidable risk of picking up the COVID infection. 

I see groups of them deployed all over the city to stop and penalise two-wheeler riders who do not wear helmets or motorists who do not wear seat belts. At a time when every close interaction with any one is a potential hazard, the admonition and penalisation of offenders from close quarters is certainly a very risky situation for our cops. 

Just to ensure the safety of those who flout personal safety rules, our Traffic Cops are now jeopardising their own safety which is simply not worth it. But they do it very obediently because they have no choice when it comes to following orders that come from above. 

So it is the top brass and even the State administration that has to understand the need of keeping them and their families safe by using their services only for the most essential Policing duties. 

Guidelines have been given to citizens about how they should ensure their safety on the roads and it is up to them to follow them in their own interests. So while the Covid threat lasts, it is best to deploy our Traffic Police personnel only to ensure that they only prevent offences like signal jumping and over-speeding that are dangerous to other road users rather than to the offenders themselves. 

Of fevers and fever medicines

Ever since our battle against COVID-19 started, the Government has imposed some very strict restrictions on the over-the-counter sale of all drugs that are used to treat ordinary fevers and  aches and pains. This it has done with the good intention of monitoring the presence of fevers among the population which could be due to the COVID-19 infection too. 

Now people need a doctor’s prescription to buy these medicines and all the doctors who prescribe them have to send a daily online report giving the details of the patients to whom they have prescribed the drugs. 

This arrangement has itself created some peculiar difficulties for the people at large. For their simple day-to-day problems, which if left unaddressed can make their life miserable, people do need some simple remedies. But now they are unable to buy these medicines from the chemists and visiting a hospital or even a doctor’s clinic to get them is itself quite difficult as doctors themselves advise them to avoid such visits due to the risk of picking up the COVOD-19 infection. 

This difficulty has in fact spawned a brisk black market for fever and pain relief drugs with them becoming secretly available in many petty shops along with people’s daily fixes like beedies, cigarettes and the now banned but easily available gutka too! The Government has to step in here and give relief to the people by relaxing these new restrictions in respect of a few commonly used medications or making it sufficient for the chemists to only retain photocopies of the patients’ Aadhaar cards with their contact numbers on them before dispensing the drugs.

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