Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted a warning on Thursday. “This is not just a tweet. This is a stern warning … Human rights are only for humans,” Chouhan said in a tweet in Hindi.
The Madhya Pradesh chief minister’s tweet comes at a time when the country is under a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
ये सिर्फ़ एक ट्वीट नहीं है।
ये कड़ी चेतावनी है…
मानवाधिकार सिर्फ़ मानवों के लिए होते है।
— Shivraj Singh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) April 2, 2020
Different states have taken measures ranging from persuasion to punishments to ensure that people do not step outside their homes. There have also been reports of medical teams sent to test residents coming under attacks. One such incident was reported from Indore on Thursday morning.
The Indore district administration on Wednesday claimed it was trying to ensure complete lockdown to break the chain of virus spread even as a team of doctors and civic officials were attacked by an unruly mob in Tatpatti Bakhat and Silawatpura area.
The team escaped unhurt as police stepped in to control the mob. Later, police claimed that the mob was controlled after interacting with the elders of the community and an assurance that no one would be taken for isolation without informing the locals.
Police also claimed that a case had been registered and that suitable action would be taken against the hoodlums after identification.
According to a lady doctor who was part of the team that was attacked said they managed to escape unhurt because the police was accompanying them. We were screening of people who had come in contact with people who were found coronavirus positive when all of a sudden this attack happened. The police was there with us so we could manage to escape unhurt, she said.
Most of the cases found positive in Indore are from around the Ranipura area and the appeal for social distancing has not found many takers here in the absence of basic essentials. Locals have also complained of a complete lack of response from authorities to emergency calls which is understood to have further aggravated the unrest.
Across the state the number of cases has now gone up to 99 of whom six have been reported dead. Out of the 98, 76 are from Indore while 8 are from Jabalpur, six from Ujjain, two each from Gwalior and Shivpuri and one from Khargone.