With the country reeling under the swine flu pandemic virus, a public interest litigation (PIL) was today filed before the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Centre as well as the state government to provide adequate medical assistance to the general public.
Filing a petition through counsel Sugriv Dubey, a Delhi resident Anjana Jain termed the situation as out of control and said "the hospitals operating under the respondents (Centre and NCT govt) do not have sufficient number of physicians, nurses besides laboratory technicians across the city hospitals".
Due to lack of effective medicine and equipments in the testing labs, the disease is spreading, the petitioner contended, adding, even the medical staff were at high risk as they were not fully protected while dealing with the patients and some cases of medical staff testing positive with H1N1 virus emerged recently.
"Even the medical staff are not being given the protective masks and there is acute shortage of masks throughout Delhi hospitals...," the petitioner further said.
The petitioner alleged the government has failed to take measures at the IG International Airport and as a result, the taxi and auto drivers were vulnerable to the disease.
The petitioner also pointed out that no step or guideline has been issued by the government for the schools to prevent the infection spreading among students.