Sampling team attacked at Rachhin village of Pakhowal block, man booked

Tribune News Service

Raikot/Ludhiana, May 27

Teams formed by the Health Department for sensitising residents about Covid and taking samples for the virus test are under constant attack from people since the spread of the pandemic. They are being attacked both in urban and rural areas.

Today, a sampling team of the Health Department was attacked at Rachhin village of the Pakhowal block in the district.

A member of the team, Suraaj Mohammed, a multipurpose health worker, sustained injuries on his forehead and was rushed to the Community Health Centre (CHC), Pakhowal, for treatment.

In a statement, Suraaj Mohammad told the police that he was attacked with a brick by a villager, named Jaspreet Singh, while he was sensitising villagers to come forward for Covid-19 testing.

Investigation revealed that the staff of a sub-centre of the Community Health Centre, Pakhowal, had organised a sampling camp at Sikhan Wala Chowk in Rachhin village under Raikot subdivision on Thursday. While healthcare workers, led by Hapreet Kaur and Suraj Mohammad, were collecting samples of residents visiting the camp, ASHA worker Ranjit Kaur was contacting residents to persuade them to get tested for Covid, so that the chain of transmission of the pathogen could be broken.

Suraj Mohammad alleged that Jaspreet Singh got infuriated on being persuaded for sampling and attacked him with a brick when he was doing his official duty to check spread of Covid.

The Sadar police, Raikot, have booked Jaspreet Singh of Rachhin village in Ludhiana district under Sections 353, 186 and 332 of the IPC for allegedly assaulting a healthcare worker when he was performing his official duty to prevent spread of Covid by undertaking sampling for the virus at Sikhan Wala Chowk at the village. Investigating officer Piara Singh said the accused was absconding.

Terming this instance extremely unfortunate, Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said such acts were highly unwarranted and severest of the actions would be taken against those trying to derail the efforts of the government to contain the virus spread.

Kirandeep Kaur, president of the ASHA Workers and Facilitators Association, said it was very difficult to convince the villagers for testing or come out of their houses for the survey.

“They hurl abuses and sometimes even throw stones at us. Seeing an ASHA workers’ team coming towards the lane, villagers shut their doors and do not come out. They instead blame us for spreading Covid and say that we will make them positive,” she said.

In August 2020, two healthcare workers posted at Jarkar village were attacked by three persons, including the organiser of a dera at Khanpur village. The team was visiting religious places to persuade inmates to get tested. The team was brutally beaten up.

In June 2020, a similar incident was reported when a survey was started in urban areas. A team of ASHA workers were attacked at Krishna Colony in Bhamian Khurd while conducting a survey. The team was surrounded by the area residents and not allowed to collect data. Residents also snatched their mobile phones.

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