The Karnataka government will urge the Centre not to take any hasty decision on Wednesday’s Kerala High Court order directing it to lift blockades erected by the Karnataka government on National Highways at State borders for medical emergency cases.
Y. Bharath Shetty, Mangaluru North MLA, who is coordinating COVID-19 cases in Dakshina Kannada, told The Hindu that the State would ask the Centre to hear it before acting. The State government, Dr. Shetty said, issued an order on March 31 restricting entry of medical emergency cases from outside States into Karnataka under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. The government was well within its powers to impose blockade, he said.
In a late evening order on Wednesday, a division bench of High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam had directed the Centre to intervene in the matter of blockade forthwith on a petition filed by the Kerala High Court Advocates’ Association. The court said though it cannot issue any directions to the Karnataka government, it can direct the Centre as NHs come under the Central government.
Stating that the restrictions were purely temporary measure, Dr Shetty stressed Karnataka had no animosity towards people from Kerala. The infrastructure was insufficient to handle COVID-19 cases that might arrive from Kerala if borders were opened for medical emergencies.
Dr. Shetty noted neighbouring Kasaragod district in Kerala alone had reported over 110 COVID-19 positive cases as against similar number of cases for entire Karnataka. “It would be difficult to screen every occupant of an emergency vehicle,” he said, adding not everyone may show symptoms during screening.
The District Health Officer issued an order directing eight private teaching hospitals in the district to not admit patients from Kerala as a precautionary measure in the light of increasing cases in Kasaragod district.
MCC invokes emergency provisions
Invoking emergency powers under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner S. Ajithkumar Hegde on Thursday banned entry of vehicles carrying patients suffering from contagious disease including COVID-19, into the corporation limits.
The civic body is obligated to prevent and check spread of dangerous diseases under Section 58 (22) of the Act, he said and passed the orders under Section 64 (1) (b) read with Section 58 (22). The restriction also applies to vehicles carrying persons who have come into contact with patients suffering from such diseases.
A similar resolution was passed by the Talapady Gram Panchayat in Karnataka that borders Kasaragod district in Kerala through which National Highway 66 passes.
