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Long Term Plans Should Be Executed With Proper Guidance to Tackle COVID-19 Second Wave: Manipur High Court

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Case: Mr Naresh Maimom Vs. Union Of India; & Ors – PIL No. 26 of 2021

Facts of the Case

Here, in PIL no. 26 its is stated that in the notice dated 02.06.2021 RIMS, Imphal approached for the requirement of oxygen in the state. In reply, the Union of India stated that already two oxygen plants of 1000LPM are given to the state and will start working from 30th June 2021. Further, it was stated that the State needs more oxygen, for the same they made arrangements for the oxygen from outside the State. In regarding this, the State Government removes 170 cylinders from the total allocation. Learned Advocate for the State submitted that daily 170-200 oxygen cylinders are issued to RIMS, Imphal and these cylinders don’t have any repercussions with oxygen cylinders taken from outside the State. Learned Counsel for the petitioner submitted that there isn’t any insufficiency on the present date as of admitted patients. But in the notice given by State authorities if RIMS, Imphal is acquiring cylinders from outside the State then it would not affect the allocation of cylinders from the State. 

Queries Raised & Responded

The State government has to draw out an action plan to tackle the problems of a future probable pandemic wave. The State government cannot react with action after the incident, nor must it necessarily equip itself to be prepared. The State government has to draw out an action plan to tackle the problems of a future probable pandemic wave. The State government cannot react with action after the incident, nor must it necessarily equip itself to be prepared. In conjunction with the National Taskforce, the State Sub-commission would have to give the forested sub-group appropriate input to develop an effective action plan in the framework of future assistance and preparation. The Court is further told that other oxygen cylinders were donated to different private organizations, in addition to the 2691 oxygen cylinder delivered by the central government. There are, however, no recorded data concerning the entire quantity of oxygen cylinders now in use in the state and their medical usage. The Health Department of the State should thus file a supplementary affidavit with the particulars. The state government is to compile the data in a tabular form, that is to say, every 3 days, updating the hospital numbers of the beds, the number of ICU beds, the number of patients currently admitted, the current oxygen cylinder requirements, etc.

Court Analysis

The Learned Court briefly observes that the statement submitted by the State authorities reveals, however, that material relating to various pandemic concerns is only available on the respective websites and is not published as a result of funding limits in the journals. The press communiqués issued by the government may be reported in full and correct form by the publications or not. Therefore, the State Government will evaluate if suitable directives may be issued to ensure that journals distribute information on this subject, without expense or insistence on payment for the publication of such updates and reports.

Court’s Decision

From all the above conclusions, the Learned Court decides that random visits for the inspection of work should be done in all the 24 Covid Care Centers (CCC’s) in the State.

Click here to read the full Judgement.


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