Even as the nation goes into lockdown, Rohtak medical college students say they are being forced to attend classes

A day after Pt BD Sharma PG Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) was in the news after a doctor tweeted the lack of safety for doctors, which was debated over its genuineness, a video shared by news agency ANI added to the woes the doctors are going through over there.

In the video, students are seen attending lectures, claiming that despite the lockdown they have been forced to attend class. “College authorities are not agreeing to grant us leave; we are being exposed to a lot of infection,” says one of the students.

Incidentally, of the students seen in the video, only two can be seen wearing what appears to be N-95 masks – the recommended masks to wear at the time of the coronavirus pandemic. The rest appear to be wearing flimsy surgical masks.

Also, the people in the first bench speaking to the camera have not engaged in social distancing, which is one of the guidelines that is required to manage the spread of this pandemic.

On Tuesday, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi put out a tweet quoting a doctor from Rohtak Haryana, who had alleged that the hospital did not have proper facilities available for medical staff treating people with the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. “I am feeling sad, because this was completely avoidable. We had time to prepare. We should have taken this treat much more seriously, and have been much better prepared,” Gandhi quoted the tweet, which was shared by Dr Kamna Kakkar.

However, since Rahul Gandhi’s tweet went out, several individuals offered to help, but did not receive any response from Dr Kakkar. It was then revealed that the Twitter handle was created a day before, angering people on Twitter.

Alt News founder Pratik Sinha, who was one of the people who retweeted Dr Kakkar’s tweet, admitted to his mistake and later issued a clarification that it was not Dr Kakkar, but her brother who had created the handle.

“I spoke with the sister (Dr Kakkar) and she said that the tweet was sent out without her knowledge, but the issue is genuine,” he tweeted.