Covid protocols only on paper as masks come off in booths- many did not have masks or wore them on chin, and gloves were disposed off on the road
People were standing within an arm’s distance, many did not have masks or wore them on chin, and gloves were disposed off on the road, on the floor or on the ground
In several polling booths, polling officials were found seated inside the booth without wearing masks properly. People were standing within an arm’s distance of each other, many did not have masks or wore them on chin, and gloves were disposed off on the road, on the floor or on the ground of the polling station.
Calcutta High Court had on Friday directed the Election Commission of India to take “hard” measures for the safety of citizens for the four phases that remain.
“At this time, maintaining social distance, use of masks and sanitisers are a must. But nobody is following the norms. The EC should be more alert and take hard steps to make the final four phases of the polls safe,” Chief Justice T.B.N. Radhakrishnan had said on Friday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the high court had said the guidelines laid down by the election commission are in place. “What needs to be done is that the said guidelines need to be implemented in the strictest possible manner. This the administration must do,” the court said while hearing petitions that expressed concern that election campaigns are not adhering to the Covid-19 protocols.
The election commission had held an all-party meeting on Friday to discuss ways to combat the rising number of Covid cases in the state that has been partly blamed on no Covid protocols being followed in election campaigns.
The Trinamul Congress had proposed that the last three phases of polls be clubbed together to stem the spread of Covid-19, while the CPM and the BJP opposed such a move.
The election commission ruled out the possibility of clubbing the last three phases.
Saturday’s scenes inside and outside many polling booths was an replica of what was seen on April 17, when places like Jadavpur, Kasba and Tollygunge had voted and Covid rules were flouted in many booths.
But a number of voters had expected the situation would be better on Saturday after the election commission issued a set of guidelines on Friday to ensure that Covid-19 protocols were followed at political rallies.
Many voters said they had thought that election commission would be very stringent in implementing the protocols on the day of polls, when the entire control of booths was in its hands. But that was not to be.
On the contrary, even polling officials in some places were found without masks.
At Salt Lake’s AH Block community centre a polling officer was found without a mask and another with the mask under his nose. Both were seated inside the booth. The agents of the political parties, too, were either without mask or with masks on the chins.
Social distancing was not followed in almost all booths.
“Is this a way to make people stand in a queue, so close to each other at a time when Covid cases are spiralling every day? I don’t understand why people are so careless. It is also their responsibility to stand at a distance from each other. Maintaining social distancing is something that is being told for over a year, yet people do not follow,” said an enraged voter outside Don Bosco Splendid Home, a booth at Bangur Avenue.
Voters in the queue — which included men, women, young and elderly — were standing barely one feet away from each other.
It was an identical picture at Kaikhali Mondol Ganti Abaitanik Prathamik Vidyalaya, off Jessore Road; Bandhabnagar Swamiji Vivekananda Vidyapith in Dum Dum. At Bandhabnagar and Dum Dum Motijheel Girls School the glove that were given to voters were discarded on the ground of the school, though there were yellow bins meant to drop the glove.
The situation was worse at Nabin Sangha club in Baranagar’s Gopal Lal Thakur Road. While other booths that Metro visited had a health worker who gave the glove, checked temperature through a thermal scanner and gave hand sanitisers to the voters, this polling booth had no health worker.
Voters came, stood in the queue, voted and left without any glove. Some of the voters who carried their own sanitisers cleansed their hands, others had no such opportunity.
No glove was given to any voter — though temperatures were checked and sanitisers were given — at the two booths inside Baranagar’s Uttarayan housing complex.
At the Brahmananda Keshab Chandra College in Bonhooghly voters were found coming out with the glove in one hand, whereas they are supposed to drop the glove in the yellow bins before leaving the polling station.
A notable exception was Diwanpara Krira 0 Sanskritik Sangha, where jawans of the central forces ensured that everyone dropped their gloves in the yellow bin before leaving the premises.
When the polls were announced on February 26, Bengal had 3,343 active Covid-19 cases. As of Thursday’s figures — Friday’s bulletin was yet to be issued when the development took place in court — there were 36,981 active cases, a 10-fold increase. The day’s number of new infections is close to 7,000, compared to 200-odd in February.
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