Nurses complain of hardship; SC sends notice

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  18.06.2020

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses from the governments of Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal, some of the worst Covid-19 affected states, on a petition by a nurses’ association alleging that they were forced to do round the clock, backbreaking work despite inadequate PPEs, lodging and quarantine facilities as well as lack of incentives.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S K Kaul and M R Shah, which urged "taking care of corona warriors", said the SC has already passed orders for providing adequate PPEs to doctors and healthcare workers. But given the respect and appreciation the court has consistently given to healthcare workers, petitioner association's counsel V K Biju did not have to labour hard to persuade the bench to entertain the PIL.

In another PIL filed by Arushi Jain, a doctor who complained of lack of adequate quarantine facilities and non-payment of salaries, solicitor general Tushar Mehta agreed with the SC and petitioner's counsel K V Vishwanathan that payment of timely salary to doctors and healthcare workers was essential.

He said the Centre would issue a direction under the Disaster Management Act and any breach in paying timely salaries to corona warriors would be made a criminal offence.