Bisma Bhat
Srinagar: As Kashmir sees a daily increase in coronavirus positive cases, the suspected travellers and contacts of infected persons lodged in several makeshift quarantine centres complain of poor and unhygienic conditions.
Thousands of people who have been put up in various quarantine centres complained that the places lack basic facilities and are in unhygienic conditions.
One of the suspected patients in Sheikh ul Alam hostel in Kashmir University said: “There are around 60 people, both male and female, in this centre. Two to three persons share a common room and there is one common washroom for men as well as women on the first floor.”
He said that the condition of these washrooms is extremely unhygienic with no soaps or sanitizers. “There is a high possibility that a person may develop other diseases by using these washrooms because we don’t have a choice. No one is cleaning them,” he added.
He added that the dustbins in corridors are left uncovered and hardly emptied.
“The foul smell from the littered garbage spreads in the whole building making people more vulnerable to diseases,” he said.
Hardly a kilometre away, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) has been turned into another quarantine centre, where people have come up with similar complaints.
“There is no regular cleaning of this centre. Garbage is overflowing from lidless dustbins,” said one of the persons quarantined at NIT.
He said people who are in quarantine are to be treated as suspected and should have clean and hygienic facilities to remain unaffected during their 14 or 28 day stay.
Similar complaints came from district hospital Magam, quarantine centers in Kupwara, Baramulla, and south Kashmir’s Pulwama.
Divisional Commissioner, Pandurang K. Pole did not respond to repeated calls and messages.
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