Hyderabad: Though government review meetings are a routine part of the day-to-day functioning, sometimes it becomes "very interesting" and knowingly or unknowingly it exposes the state of affairs.
On Monday, the Telangana High Court had come down heavily on the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government on the precarious situation of COVID-19 cases in the state with high number of infections and deaths. The High Court fumed at officials and ordered Chief Secretary and other concerned top officials to appear on July 28.
In view of High Court's scathing remarks, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday called a review meeting on the issue.
However, as bizzare it can be, following is the transcript/verbatim of CMO (Chief Minister's Office) note on what transpired in the meeting. The officials have been quoted without names:
“On the Corona issue, every other person is going to the High Court. So far, the High Court has admitted 87 Public Interest Litigations. Due to daily hearings, the officials are facing problems and hardship. Senior doctors and other officials, who are working day and night giving treatment to the needy, are forced to spend more amount of their time to run to the court. In this hour of crisis, these senior officials had to leave their primary duty and are spending time to prepare for the court hearing and to attend the hearings. With this, they have not been able to render cent percent justice to their duties," read the CMO transcript.
"In fact, when compared to other States, situation in Telangana state is better. There is less percentage of deaths. But yet, the state government and the medical officers are working to the best of their abilities. The State administration is ready to provide medical treatment to any number of patients whatever may be their number. Everyday thousands of tests are done. It is painful that though so much had been done, yet the High Court made some comments. In the past too, someone filed a petition asking that tests should be conducted on the dead. The High Court gave orders in their favour. Taking into consideration the factual situation, the Supreme Court had to set aside the HC orders," the transcript further read.
"Yet, PILs are being filed in the High Court and the High Court is admitting them. With the court hearing 87 PILs, it is an inconvenience for the Chief Secretary, principal secretary, Hospital medical superintendents concerned when the High Court is summoning them. The precious time of the medical and other senior officials is spent on attending the court hearings. Based on the comments made by the High Court, some media organisations are also reporting in such a way to convey that the state government is not doing anything on the matter. This is shattering the morale of the medical staff who are rendering the services putting their own lives at stake.”
The CMO note mentioned the above greviances of several officials who had participated in the review meeting.
The note concludes as follows: "The CM gave a patient hearing to the opinions expressed. He instructed the officials concerned to file an affidavit in the High Court on conducting the investigative tests, treatment given and precautions taken while administering the treatment with all facts. For the High Court hearing, the officials should submit all the information that the court sought and inform it about the work done," the CM added.
Those in attendance at the meeting included Health Minister Etela Rajender, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretary (Medical and Health) Syed Murtuza Rizvi, Principal Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao, along with several heads of Medical and Health department.
