The Bombay high court has asked the state government to submit its response on the number of existing laboratories to test swine flu in Maharashtra and steps taken to set up more such facilities.
The Bombay high court has asked the state government to submit its response on the number of existing laboratories to test swine flu in Maharashtra and steps taken to set up more such facilities. The court’s directive to the state was given while hearing a petition that claimed there was a solitary laboratory in Mumbai to conduct tests on swine flu samples.
The division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice Swapna Joshi was hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate Dutta Mane. The petitioner has sought a direction to the government to set up one laboratory in each district for testing H1N1 samples as part of the measures to control its spread. The petitioner has referred to many news articles that were published in February and March 2015 and has alleged the state and the BMC were not serious about taking the steps to cure swine flu-affected persons.
He also wanted the court to give directions to the state and municipal corporations to make separate arrangements in each hospital to quarantine swine flu patients so others visiting the hospitals would not contract the virus.
The petitioner’s lawyer Pradip Havnur argued said, “There is only one government laboratory in Mumbai and a few are in other districts. It has been found that owing to lack of laboratories more than hundreds of deaths occurred in the state.”
After hearing this, the court said it was the prime duty of states to establish such laboratories and detection centres. The court has asked the state to file a reply before October 10.
