The move by the BBMP officials to seal the apartment door of a Covid-19 patient with galvanised metal sheets led to outrage with the public questioning the inhumane act.
The incident happened at an apartment complex in Domlur Layout on Thursday. Two flats were sealed by the BBMP staff with galvanised metal sheets which was condemned by netizens and termed inhumane.
Sathish Sangameswaran, a neighbour of the victims has tweeted with the photographs that BBMP is sealing down their building for a confirmed Covid-19 case, there is a woman and two children in one flat and next door there is an aged couple. He was shocked by the act and worried about the two families, if there is fire hazard as it would be difficult for emergency response.
Soon after his tweet, there were huge condemning messages on social media and Bommanahalli Covid-19 Care Team were alerted and spoke to the victim and promised this is not standard operating procedure and promised to remove the galvanised metal sheets.
Senior IAS officer L K Atheeq, who heads the government’s committee on information dissemination on the Covid-19 pandemic, condemned the incident and tweeted “This is not the SoP. I am surprised they did this. Have requested the Special Commissioner to get it looked into. He has reverted saying it will be removed soon."
The victim told that the BBMP officials came with management committee members of the apartment around 11 am on Thursday and said that they are going to seal down the floor, she closed the door and went back to work. After a couple of hours when she opened the door, she saw galvanised metal sheets on the door and she was shocked as she knew she could not go out during home isolation but she did not expect the sheets on her doors.
After the messages and photographs went viral on social media, BBMP officials went to her flat and removed galvanised metal sheets around 7 pm on both flats.
BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad said that it was an ignorant act, officials who are responsible for this will be booked under dereliction of duty. This can not be done and this is not the way to seal down the containment area. The galvanised metal sheets have been removed, he said.
The Joint Commissioner of East Zone issued a showcause notice to Assistant Engineer of Domlur Ward (#112) seeking explanation on the entire incident. The Joint commissioner expressed that at the outset it appears to be a dereliction of duty by willfully ignoring the standard operating procedure (SOP) in sealing of the building.