Violence broke out on Sunday night when health officials and workers went to Bengaluru’s Padarayanapura ward to shift secondary contacts to quarantine facilities.
After the ruckus in the Padarayanapura ward in Bengaluru South on Sunday night, the Chamarajapet MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan expressed his disappointment over the way officials handled the process of shifting secondary contacts (of COVID-19 patients) to quarantine centres. On Sunday evening, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had sealed the ward, as 11 people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting tested positive for coronavirus. On Sunday night, the BBMP officials, ASHA workers and the police reached the ward in the MLA’s Chamarajapet constituency and identified 57 secondary contacts to be shifted to a quarantine facility. However, violence broke out when some refused to go to the centre. According to Zameer Ahmed, the officials should have raised awareness about the need for quarantine before taking them to the quarantine facility. “The people here are scared. Their fear is: where will they take us? What will they do with us? That's the fear the poor people have. They keep on dwelling on this fear,” he told the media. Zameer Ahmed said that in order to assuage this fear, steps should have been taken to reassure them first. He then went on to quote an example where he allegedly managed to convince the people in Tipu Nagar to undergo the COVID-19 test. “I had personally gone around in Tipu Nagar, reaching out to the people, (saying) that they should not be afraid. I told them that we are doing this for the benefit of their health and for the good of the nation. I told them that there is nothing wrong with (medical) check-ups. I even sent them WhatsApp messages, appealing to that community. As a result, 80 people had come forward for testing,” he claimed. Incidentally, the MLA was criticised for allegedly asking the officials not to shift them (to be quarantined). Slamming the MLA, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said, “Who is Zameer Ahmad Khan? Why should we take his permission before doing our government duties? So in other words, was it he who incited this? He is irresponsible for making such statements.” The MLA later clarified, “It is okay if only one or two people need to be shifted. If more than 50 people need to be shifted at once, people will definitely panic. So, I said let us give them some awareness and then take them away.” Zameer Ahmed also said that the police officials should have gone in the day time. “I understand that if those were positive cases. The officials then have every right to quarantine them immediately. But these are suspected cases," he added. Stressing that the people in the ward should have been shifted after creating awareness, he said, “This is a tricky population. They are not educated and are mostly daily wage labourers.” The MLA had come under fire for allegedly supporting the mob that indulged in the vandalism at the Padarayanapura ward. However, condemning the incident, he said, “I had stated last night (Sunday) that the government should take action against them (the culprits). This is a sensitive issue and people are afraid. Please don't misconstrue it.”
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