Amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, Maharashtra has emerged as the worst affected state, with more than 1.35 lakh cases having been recorded till date. Despite the looming threat of the virus however, municipal and private school teachers in Thane have alleged that the Thane Municipal Corporation has not provided any safety measures as they conduct a door to door health survey across Thane city.
The civic school teachers had been conducting the health survey to track down people who might have been infected with the novel coronavirus.
There have been conducting the survey for eight hours daily, and have to compulsorily cover at least 100 houses in a day. But while the officials put their life on the line to do the work, they have been irked at the Municipal Corporation’s seeming apathy. There is also the mental stress of worrying about their families and the possible health repercussions of their work.
The teachers further alleged that while they had initially opposed the lack of preventive measures, the Thane Municipal Corporation had warned civic teachers about suspension for not reporting for coronavirus survey duty.
Another teacher said that during the training sessions they had been asked to maintain three feet distance. However, the teacher said that there were huge problems while conducting surveys in the slum areas owing to the lack of space. This too has added to their concerns regarding the possibility of becoming infected.
The Thane Municipal Corporation however denies the allegations. Sandeep Malvi, the PRO of the Corporations said that the allegations were “totally baseless”.
“We are providing preventive measures such as mask, face shields, hand gloves and sanitizers etc. There are a few teachers who do not want to do the work and they made an allegation without any concrete facts. The teachers whose ages are around 55 and above are not engaged in survey work. They are all engaged in the office work," he said.
