After last years floods, a high level committee ordered construction of 17 new sump houses, but this has remained on paper. Work to make existing sump houses functional has also not taken off.
Faced with miserable conditions at district quarantine centres and no prospect of jobs, the 1.5 lakh plus labourers who have returned to Bihar could well be left with just one option — go back to where they returned from.
Though there is a government order that private hospitals should function normally, these hospitals are blithely ignoring it, turning away patients in need of treatment.
Whatever partial relaxation has been allowed has brought little relief to the poor of Patna, which is not surprising given the many inconsistencies in the guidelines.
