Lucknow: The so-called ‘Agra-Model’ of coronavirus containment, which was much publicised by the Uttar Pradesh government, left the administration red-faced on Sunday after videos emerged of people at a quarantine centre being forced to crowd near the gate to receive essential supplies like food and water.
In one of the videos that has gone viral on social media, a man in protective gear can be seen tossing biscuit packets close to the gate of the centre as people from the other side stretch their hands to try and catch them.
The 25-second clip also shows water bottles kept outside the gates as hands reach out from behind the grills without paying any heed for social distancing. The video was shot at the Sharda Group of Institutions, which has been turned into a quarantine centre by the administration.
And then you blame those who want to escape quarantine - quarantined fed shabbily in agra ..@pranshumisraa pic.twitter.com/oZ0ALW19li— pallavi ghosh (@_pallavighosh) April 26, 2020
After the videos were shared widely, district magistrate Prabhu Narayan Singh said he had gone to inspect the centre and all arrangement have been taken care of now.
“The Chief Development Officer has been asked to investigate the matter and to fix responsibility as there was a separate team formed to handle this task. The team has been asked to work properly and to ensure that such complaints are not received again,” he said.
The incident assumes significance as Agra has 372 Covid-19 cases, the highest in Uttar Pradesh, including 10 deaths. Earlier, Mayor of Agra Naveen Jain wrote a letter to UP CM Yogi Adityanath and had warned him that Agra could be the ‘Wuhan’ of India as the situation in Agra was dangerous.
Jain had blamed district administration’s failure in containing the coronavirus spread in the city and had requested CM Yogi to ‘save’ Agra.
Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh has also raised questions over the video and wrote on Twitter: “This is the role model city of Agra which is now being addressed as ‘Wuhan’ of India. People are treated like animals in quarantine centres. Whose role model is this city? You can very well guess.”
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