Madras HC now pulls up Centre over Covid preparedness

Chennai, April 29 (IANS) The Madras High Court on Thursday questioned the Central government's Covid preparations.When the Centre's counsel, Additional Solicitor General R. Sankaranarayanan listed out the measures taken by it to contain the spread of the Covid pandemic, the bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy asked: "Why was the preparedness taken only from April while we had a whole year to get prepared."It also stressed that the Centre should have acted in a planned and systematic manner rather than restoring to ad hoc measures.Ahead of counting for the April 6 Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Assembly elections on May 2, the Chief Justice appealed to all the political parties not to have any celebrations or mass congregations at the time of counting to avoid the spread of pandemic.
--IANS aal/vd