Citizens Can't Proclaim Fundamental Right To Be Reckless: Maha Govt Opposes PILs To Allow Unvaccinated On Trains

Allowing unvaccinated persons to use public transport will not only endanger several lives by the explosive transmission of Covid-19 virus but will also negate all efforts made to control it's spread so far, the Maharashtra Government told the Bombay High Court.On Wednesday, the state's Chief Secretary Debashish Chakrabarty filed an affidavit in response to two PILs challenging the state's decision to allow only fully vaccinated people to board local trains, visit malls and workplaces.During the previous hearing, the division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik had asked the state to explain their rationale behind the restriction. The court noted that the issue involved possible curtailment of the fundamental rights of unvaccinated citizens.The affidavit filed on behalf of the State said, "...allowing unvaccinated persons to mix with people by using public transport will only endanger and will invite the explosive transmission of the corona virus, and its subsequent variants, and the Government of Maharashtra, as parens patrie, cannot afford to take that risk".Recalling the dire situation citizens and the state found itself in due to high demand of oxygen during the second wave, the affidavit said that "No citizen can proclaim his or her fundamental right to be reckless to bring pressure on the resources like oxygen and hospital that must be considered as scarce public resources."It added that even if a citizen was willing to pay for resources like oxygen, it's the state's fundamental duty to manage them.A fully vaccinated person has a reduced chance of hospitalisation, the affidavit said.The state has said that during the last wave, the oxygen requirement went beyond 1800 metric tonnes a day while production at state level of the same is only 1200 metric tonnes a day."Though Government of Maharashtra, by working tirelessly, did manage the situation effectively but it must be accepted that we cannot allow demand of oxygen to go beyond our in-house capacity."According to the affidavit, as on December 21, there were 544 new cases and 4 people passed away in Maharashtra. Moreover, 81,661 persons are in home quarantine and 877 persons are in institutional quarantine.Up till now there are 66.5 lakhs infected cases and 1.41 lakh deaths due to Covid. As on December 20, there were 54 new cases of the Omicron variant in Maharashtra.The state has refused the allegation of discrimination between different modes of transport and said that the condition of being fully vaccinated applies to all train services, bus services, and in fact, all types of public transport.According to data available with Central Railway and Western Railway, approximately 80 lakh persons travelled by train before the Covid pandemic. However, yesterday 37.33 lakh people travelled by Central Railways and 28.82 lakh travelled by Western Railways."I would like, to clarify at this juncture only that if we do not, take this care, and if we allow each and everybody and anybody, irrespective of the fact whether vaccinated or not, to make uncontrolled use of the "Public Transport Services", it would not only endanger the entire public which is travelling but also their families and all others whom they come into contact with thereby negating all the efforts taken so far to prevent the transmission of the virus," the affidavit finally said.On Wednesday, the bench said it will now take up the matter for final hearing on January 3, 2022.BackgroundIn separate petitions, activists Feroze Mithiborwala and Yohan Tengra have sought that everyone who needs to travel by local trains within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region be allowed to travel, irrespective of the status of their vaccination.It was submitted before the court that the Central government had made it clear that there cannot be discrimination based on vaccination status despite which the State Government was passing such orders.

Citizens Can't Proclaim Fundamental Right To Be Reckless: Maha Govt Opposes PILs To Allow Unvaccinated On Trains

Sharmeen Hakim

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