“I demand the probe shall be done for all the irregularities by the authorities on ground. COVID19 is a cover for the misdeeds and scams being undertaken presently”Shafiq Mir, JKPC President.
The Legitimate Desk
A week back when senior IAS officer in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory was tested positive, he along with dozens of other officers were put in home quarantine. It was only after two days, the officer was again tested for the Covid19 and he luckily received the negative report. It was much to him and other colleagues respite who have been put in home quarantine and were unable to discharge their official duties.
The sources in the administration say that the officer was a victim of on ongoing false testing at labs in Jammu and Kashmir.
He is yet to come out of his home quarantine as part of precautionary measures.
“He is staying in quarantine since he can not trust now both the reports. He is just trying to complete the quarantine period as precautionary measures,” sources close to the officer told The Legitimate.
While this has been the incident at the highest level of bureaucracy that shook them all, among the common people there are hundreds of such stories surfacing.
The conflicting test reports between the two premier Covid19 labs at Chest and Disease Hospital and Sheri Kashmir institute of medical Science SKIMS have triggered the panic and anger among the common people.
Some people term it as a conspiracy to deny Kashmiris to resume the normal life and weaken them economically, others term it a scam where some officials are making money out of human sufferings.
The unexpected spike in the number of COVID19 cases has forced UT administration few days back to reclassify the districts and declare entire Kashmir as red zones barring two districts of Ganderbal and Bandipora.
Peer Ajaz from Baramulla is a victim of the process and is vowing to expose what he calls a ‘COVID scam’.
“I went to the hospital in May following the travel history. They took my samples and after sometime I was told my report is negative. However, on May 19, the officials from the same hospital again called me and asked for resampling,” says peer Ajaz.
“When I went to the hospital I was again tested. Within two hours I was verbally declared positive and put in the quarantine. But till date no report is provided. After insisting them for the report, I was told your resampling was not tested in the lab,” he added.
However, his entire family and the contacts which were around 100 were sent to the administrative quarantine.
Aggrieved Ajaz, while returning home lodged complaint with the LG office’s grievance cell and posted a video on social media.
“I spoke against the system and they were hurt. As a mark of punishment they took all my relatives and the neighbours for the administrative quarantine when the reality is that I am yet to be proven as a positive patient.”
Ajaz demands probe into the funds being allotted for the CIOVID19 programme by the UT administration.
“We need to check how much is spent on each individual during administrative quarantine and how much the funds are provided. You will understand how big is this scam,” he said.
Another suspect COVID19 Mir Imran from Sopore town who also had a travel history and was part of tabligi jamaat went to the hospital in Baramulla where his sampling was done and put under administrative quarantine. He was released after 21 days without receiving the report. But he received the call after five days of his release and was informed that his test report was positive.
By the time Imran was sent back to administrative quarantine, he had met his family members, relatives and large number of friends due to which the chain of contacts followed him in administrative quarantine.
“How on earth the suspect is sent to home and later again called back after declaring positive case,” said his relative, wishing not to be named.
Locals term it as a deliberate negligence by the concerned authorities in an order to increase the number of people to be put under administrative quarantine.
Doctor Dr Javid Iqbal Monga who was tested positive was also allowed to serve in the emergency department of hospital in Baramulla after his sample collections. By the time his positive report reached, he had already met and treated scores of patients. Dr Iqbal was tested positive on April 15.
“This is when the suspects for administrative quarantine started multiplying in the district,” said the sources in the hospital.
Similarly, in Srinagar’s premier CD Hospital a doctor from north Kashmir who wished not to be named was tested positive for coronavirus. Ironically, his brother who was in close contact with him and shared food and water in the same utensils with him was tested negative. His brother instead of getting tested at CD hospital decided to go to SKIMS, Soura.
“We smell foul. When the disease can easily spread with contacts, how it is possible I have not contracted the infection from my brother when we shared food, water, and cloths of each other and stayed together,” the brother of the doctor said.
Similarly, a senior journalist in Srinagar was tested positive at CD hospital, and later when he went for cross-examination at SKIMS, his tests appeared negative.
The authenticity of the tests was questioned by people at CD Hospital and some even said that the test reports at SKIMS cannot be relied upon.
“In the beginning of the month, all USG clinics were sealed in Baramulla and were advised to go for the COVID19 test. All of them visited CD lab and gave their samples. The doctors who perform USG’S were declared negative. Surprisingly the other staffers, their tests were not produced the same day and they had to wait for two more days to collect their reports. After two days they were declared COVID19 positive and put in quarantine even when they had no symptoms,” said one of the owners of the clinical lab in Baramulla.
“In Budgam town, a young boy after remaining admitted in district hospital for five days with the symptoms of fever was finally referred to SMHS after doctors suspected him as #COVID positive patient. This they did without any test procedures. Meanwhile the hospital authorities continued to receive attendants and people visiting him—breaking their own SOP.
“The tertiary care SMHS hospital discharges the boy after treating him for ‘Typhoid’. The boy’s father, a labrour, tells me that he has been put to immense psychological trauma by the “incompetent authorities” at the hospital in all these days. I am sure there are hundreds of such stories happening everyday amid these crisis,” writes Nazeer Ganie, a senior journalist on his fb wall.
Shafiq Mir, the chairman of All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference says that the Covid19 is providing a shield for the larger scams that are undergoing in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
“You need not only to probe the quarantine or testing process. See the huge money approved for the masks and sanitizers for the people in rural areas. Wherever they have distributed them, you will find massive bungling,” he told The Legitimate.
Urging LG to initiate an impartial inquiry into the alleged multi crore scam, Mir said that during the closure of the financial year, the bills were released for developmental works never been undertaken by the officials.
“I demand the probe shall be done for all the irregularities by the authorities on ground. COVID19 is a cover for the misdeeds and scams being undertaken presently”.
Mir is backed by a Sarpanch from Kulgam district Mir Iqbal. According to Iqbal in his village few hundred masks by the authorities were distributed and later they claimed the entire area with thousands of people were covered.
“This is a big scam and we are unable to say anything since they project themselves as frontline warriors and saviors of humanity”.
