Coronavirus: FIR filed against former UP village head after he complained of lack of facilities

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Several reports showed Covid-19 patients in Mewla Gopalgarh village lying under a neem tree as they struggled to find hospital beds.

The police in Uttar Pradesh have filed a first information report against the former head of a village for allegedly giving false statements to the media about the coronavirus and spreading rumours to tarnish the government’s image, The Times of India reported on Wednesday.

The Times of India and The Wire had reported on how Covid-19 patients in Mewla Gopalgarh village lay on cots under a neem tree, with glucose drips hanging from the branches. They had struggled to find hospital beds and believed that being under the tree would help raise their oxygen levels.

Yogesh Talan, the former village head, had told The Wire that a huge number of residents had been unwell since the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh last month “[There is] not a single house where nobody is experiencing cough or fever,” he was quoted as saying by the website. “The administration has failed terribly on two fronts, testing and providing medical facilities to the sick. People are feeling helpless in this village.”

Talan said that hospitals were refusing to admit even patients with severe symptoms.

However, the administration of Gautam Buddh Nagar, under whose jurisdiction the village is, claimed that it had organised two coronavirus testing camps in the village from May 13, according to The Times of India. Officials alleged that Talan did not disclose correct information about the drive to the villagers.

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