The Central government has told the Delhi High Court that it has taken various steps to ensure the safety of sanitation workers during the ongoing coronavirus crisis as per the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).
A division bench of Chief Justice of Delhi DN Patel and Justice C Harishankar, after hearing the submissions on Friday, asked the Centre to file a detailed report on the issue and slated the matter for further hearing on May 8.
Additional solicitor general Maninder Acharya, appearing for the Centre, submitted that various steps have already been taken by the Union of India as envisaged in the guidelines issued by the WHO.
Acharya highlighted the risk sanitation workers are facing while discharging their duties, especially, cleaning of bio-medical waste, ICU units, etc, and submitted that a total of 3,46,929 N95 face masks and 60,890 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits have been given to the Delhi government.
The court was hearing a petition, filed by social activist Harnam Singh through advocate Mahmood Pracha, seeking directions for the safety of lakhs of sanitation workers who have been carrying out waste collection and disposal amidst the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The plea said that the petitioner had earlier approached the Supreme Court for securing the safety of the "vulnerable and highly exposed" sanitation workers, and the Supreme Court had disposed of the petition while recording the categorical submission that adequate safety equipment was being provided to them as per mandatory WHO guidelines.
"Even though the order implies that the safety of all sanitation workers has been ensured by strict compliance with guidelines for disbursement of protective equipment to them, the petitioner has come across information from several sources, including news articles, of the completely hapless and offensive extent to which sanitation workers have been left to fend for themselves," the plea said.
It said that the sanitation workers largely belong to the economically weaker section and that these workers are unlikely to have the means and opportunity to approach this court, and therefore the petitioner is moving the present petition in public interest.
World
Coronavirus has spread to 185 countries. The total confirmed cases worldwide are 29,71,477 and 2,06,535 have died; 18,99,547 are active cases and 8,65,395 have recovered as on April 27, 2020 at 8:32 am.
India
In India, there are 27,892 confirmed cases including 872 deaths. The number of active cases is 20,835 and 6,185 have recovered as on April 27, 2020 at 8:00 am.
State & District Details
State Cases Active Recovered Deaths Maharashtra8068
6650
1076
342
Gujarat3301
2837
313
151
Delhi2918
1987
877
54
Rajasthan2185
1634
518
33
Madhya Pradesh2096
1691
302
103
Tamil Nadu1885
841
1020
24
Uttar Pradesh1868
1550
289
29
Andhra Pradesh1097
835
231
31
Telangana1002
696
280
26
West Bengal649
524
105
20
Jammu And Kashmir523
380
137
6
Karnataka503
302
182
19
Kerala458
116
338
4
Punjab313
224
71
18
Haryana289
110
176
3
Bihar274
216
56
2
Odisha103
67
35
1
Jharkhand82
66
13
3
Uttarakhand50
22
28
0
Himachal Pradesh40
17
22
1
Chhattisgarh37
5
32
0
Assam36
8
27
1
Andaman And Nicobar Islands33
22
11
0
Chandigarh30
13
17
0
Ladakh20
6
14
0
Meghalaya12
11
0
1
Puducherry7
4
3
0
Goa7
0
7
0
Manipur2
0
2
0
Tripura2
0
2
0
Mizoram1
1
0
0
Arunachal Pradesh1
0
1
0
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)