Gandhinagar: Social distancing, advocated worldwide as a preventive measure, had unusual culprits at both ends of the pendulum. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had issued a notice it needed 354 medical and paramedical staff, never anticipating the response.
Many applicants lined up outside its office in Ahmedabad. The scene such medics, the people supposed to educate and administer virus cases on among others, social distancing, were themselves jostling around making a hash of things.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has been at the cutting edge of providing preventive, curative and essential services to people in Gujarat’s premier city. It had put out its requirement of doctors and para-medical personnel for its corona teams.
It was caught off guard as large numbers swarmed the venue responding to the advertisement notice and police had to be called in to regulate the crowds. The overwhelming response prompted civic authorities to raise recruitment target to a hundred doctors and 1,000 paramedical staff.
This comes in the backdrop of unruly behaviour by migrant workers in Surat the previous day who stoned the cops counselling them on social distancing and mass movement. The stone pelting forced police to fire teargas shells and register offences.
In Ahmedabad DGP Sivananda Jha on Tuesday announced the suspension of an inspector after a video clip of him overturning a vegetable vendor’s cart went viral on social media. With total cases in Gujarat touching 73,the number of people contracted through local contagion (37) has crossed the infected through international movement (35).
