Residents calling the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s Covid-19 helpline are being told to seek help from their nearest police station, they have alleged.
Residents of various blocks in Salt Lake told The Telegraph on Friday that they had called the helpline on multiple occasions only to be told “thanay khobor din (alert police station)”.
The corporation had launched the helpline a few days after the Centre announced the lockdown in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Arpita Chatterjee, 76, a retired schoolteacher who lives in AD Block — which had reported the first coronavirus patient in Salt Lake — said she had called the helpline to enquire about a swab test.
“I had called the number last week. I have fever and I wanted to find out if the corporation would help me get a Covid test done. I was taken aback when they said I should call the police station,” Chatterjee said.
Cops are facing problems because the civic authorities are passing the buck to them, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
Cops are acting as “liaison officers” between the state health department and civic officials, the officer said. “We can be of little help apart from arranging ambulances to transport patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus and to escort family members to institutional quarantine units if required.”
A septuagenarian who lives in DB Block from where several residents have tested positive for the virus said he had called the helpline multiple times to request for a sanitisation drive.
Cyclone scar: A man sits under a bus stop shed along Southern Avenue on Friday. The bus stop was damaged by Cyclone Amphan on May 20. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta
“Every time I dialled the helpline, they asked me to call the police. When I asked if cops were now supposed to spray disinfectants, they simply disconnected the line,” Basu said.
Apart from the helpline, residents can call councillors directly in case they faced any problems, Krishna Chakraborty, the Bidhannagar mayor, said. “I will look into the allegations… why those manning the helpline are replying in this manner. Residents can call the ward councillor directly for help.”
The civic body has one doctor for its 41 wards, a civic official said. The corporation has an “uphill struggle” to visit houses of people reporting symptoms of Covid-19 and conduct tests on them, the official said. “We have a small health team and we are faced with a severe manpower shortage.”
Calls to mayoral council member Pranay Kumar Ray who heads the health department went unanswered.
Salt Lake has a sizeable population of senior citizens. More than 280 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the township till Friday.
Apart from 18 places in Salt Lake, these people are from the erstwhile Rajarhat-Gopalpur Municipality, Baguiati, Kaikhali, Kestopur, and Teghoria.
A bank in CJ Block was shut down after its manager tested positive for Covid-19. At least two constables attached with Bidhannagar North police station have tested positive for the virus, sending at least five others to quarantine.
