Allahabad: After a string of criticism of the Uttar Pradesh government over Covid management, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday appreciated the work done by the state government for improving medical infrastructure in five districts — Bahraich, Shravasti, Bijnor, Barabanki and Jaunpur.

While hearing a PIL on the state’s Covid situation, a Bench comprising Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Ajit Kumar said they hoped that similar efforts will be made by the state government in other districts as well.

The court made the observations after going through a report submitted by the state government on medical facilities in the aforementioned districts. The bench also asked the state government to submit a report on the improvement of medical infrastructure in five other districts – Bhadohi, Ghazipur, Ballia, Deoria and Shamli – during the next date of hearing.

On May 19, the same bench of the High Court had observed that the “entire medical system” of Uttar Pradesh “pertaining to the smaller cities and villages can only be taken to be like a famous Hindi saying, Ram Bharose (at the mercy of God)”.

During the hearing, over a PIL on the Covid situation in Uttar Pradesh, the court took into account submissions by the government over health infrastructure in districts, remarking that these were inadequate, and warned of a third wave.

Later, the Supreme Court stayed the directions issued by the Allahabad High Court asking the UP government to improve facilities at medical colleges in states within four months, saying the High Court should refrain from passing directions that cannot be implemented. The High Court on Thursday also expressed satisfaction with the work done to cap the fees for diagnostics.

In its order, the bench said the state has fixed the RT-PCR test fee between Rs 500 and Rs 900, and the antigen test at Rs 200. The fee for CT scan has been fixed at Rs 2,000 for up to 16 slices; Rs 2,250 for 16 to 64 slices; and Rs 2,500 for more than 64 slices, the order added. A committee looking into the facts regarding the treatment of Late Justice V K Srivastava submitted its report to the court. The court took the report on record and said it will look into it on the next date.

On vaccinating physically challenged persons, the state government told the High Court that it would adopt the guidelines of the Central government. The court then directed the Centre to come up “with a stand with regard to vaccination to physically challenged people who find it difficult to approach the vaccination centres” by the next date of hearing. The court listed the PIL for hearing in the week commencing from June 7.

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