Kashish Jain
A NGO has filed a Public Interest Litigation before the Bombay High Court. The PIL seeks the installation of public hand sanitizer dispensing machines in public places (railway stations, trains, buses and slums) by the Bombay Municipal Corporation.
The NGO cited examples of the measures taken by other cities such as Madurai and Bangalore.The PIL has involved these measures as a part and parcel of the Citizens’ right to life.
The PIL states,“Civic Bodies of Bengaluru, Chennai, Guwahati, Coimbatore and Rajpur started using drones to propagate disinfectant in order to clean out any surface contaminated by the virus.”
These cities installed Hand washing facilities in order to prevent the spread.
The NGO has also stated that for efficient geographical coverage in the disinfection of the public areas, Cities like Rajkot and Surat have adopted high clearance boom sprayers.
The NGO is Citizen Circle for Social Welfare and Education which is being represented by Advocate Shehzad Naqvi.
The PIL also requests for the authorities to be directed to distribute masks publicly to those needy ones found without. This would ensure complete compliance by all sections of the society to the Standard Operating Procedure to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The PIL reads, “The Right to Life as enshrined by virtue of Article 21 of the Constitution of India also means and includes right to a healthy and wholesome environment, and it is the duty of the Railways and the Corporation to ensure that public places have sanitary dispensing machines and also the trains and buses are disinfected by regularly spraying disinfectants and the downtrodden of the society are distributed face masks to prevent the spread of Covid 19”
