A day after police personnel were allegedly attacked by a mob violating the lockdown in Malegaon in Nashik district, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Dr. Subhash Bhamre on Friday urged the Union Home Ministry to send a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) team to maintain order. He also demanded that a Central team be sent to review the situation there.
Dr. Bhamre, the MP from Dhule constituency, which encompasses Malegaon, alleged that COVID-19 cases in Malegaon had surged at a worrying rate because the State government and the local administration had failed to gauge the gravity of the situation from the start.
“I condemn this attack on policemen by the mob. Around 15 days ago, when Malegaon had reported just one positive case, I had expressed my reservations and written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, warning them that Malegaon would emerge as the next virus hotspot in Maharashtra. And this is precisely what is happening,” the MP said.
While the city has reported more than 110 cases and 10 deaths, Dr. Bhamre alleged that the real figure was far higher than reported.
Earlier, the BJP leader had claimed that the power loom city had turned into a virus hotspot as more than 100 people from there, who had allegedly participated in the Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month, were not coming forward to get themselves tested.
The former Minister of State for Defence urged that a Central team be sent to take stock of the situation similar to the one that recently visited the Dharavi slum cluster in Mumbai.
While the spread of the virus in Nashik city and other part of the district has been kept in check thus far, reporting 11 cases, the continual spike in cases in Malegaon is a worry for the administration.
While admitting that many people are suppressing their medical history, Shiv Sena legislator and Agriculture Minister Dada Bhuse, who represents the Malegaon Outer Assembly constituency, said this was not the time for pointing fingers at one another.
“Malegaon has a different set of problems, from feeding out-of-work loom workers to its congested by-lanes and residential areas. In the event a Central team comes here to review the situation, then we will act on its recommendations,” Mr. Bhuse said, stating that the State government was doing its level best to check the spread of the contagion.
