Journalists in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal on Friday protested the district collector’s order to paste quarantine notices on the houses of reporters who attended the then chief minister Kamal Nath’s press conference on March 20 after one of them contracted the coronavirus disease.
A man, who claimed to be a journalist and attended the press conference, has been hospitalised at AIIMS, Bhopal along with his daughter who tested positive earlier for Covid-19.
The notice, which is a warning for other people, reads “Covid-19, Do not visit, Home under quarantine”.
The protests began after health department personnel accompanied by the police started pasting the notices on the journalists’ houses. The personnel said they had a list from the collector and the order to paste the notices, said a journalist.
Some of the journalists said they are already following the norms over the coronavirus disease and have self-quarantined after the man contracted Covid-19.
Vatsal Shrivastava, a journalist, has complained to the Bhopal divisional commissioner against what he said was the ‘highhandedness of the government’.
“If the presence of the coronavirus-affected person in the then CM’s press conference is the reason to target the journalists then the then CM, his ministerial colleagues, several ruling party MLAs and several bureaucrats including Bhopal collector too who were present during the press conference should have the notices at their houses,” Shrivastava said.
Bhopal collector Tarun Kumar Pithode could not be reached for his comments.
Kalpana Shrivastava, the commissioner, said she was not aware who issued the order.
“However, I have spoken to the collector and also commissioner public relations in this regard. The issue will be resolved,” she said.
The Congress criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the notices.
“This is the real face of BJP as far as its opinion about journalism and journalists is concerned. The BJP has never been in favour of the presence of media in society,” Durgesh Sharma, the spokesperson of the Congress’ state unit, said.
The ruling party said chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been apprised of the issue.
“The journalists’ concern was immediately conveyed to the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and he instructed the authorities to look into the matter,” Lokendra Parashar the BJP’s media in-charge, said.
Thirty-one people in Madhya Pradesh have contracted the disease and almost half of the Covid-19 cases are from Indore. Jabalpur is the second most infected city with eight cases followed by capital Bhopal with three cases.
Two deaths have been reported, one each from Indore and Ujjain, state officials have said.
