A full-blown war of words is raging on Twitter on whether Jharkhand should go under a temporary lockdown as a precaution against novel coronavirus.
On Saturday, state education minister Jagarnath Mahto took to Twitter and said schools, colleges and other educational institutions could run smoothly in Jharkhand because the state didn’t have any confirmed case of coronavirus.
A rough translation of his tweet, which was written in Hindi, read: “A review meeting of the chief secretary and health department (Government of Jharkhand) has been held to prevent the corona epidemic.
“Till the next order, all the schools and colleges of the state will continue to run smoothly as no infection has been found in the state so far from this epidemic.”
The netizens were quick to react. Among the 238 comments that the tweet received, most criticised the state government’s failure to make quick decisions.
Twitter user Suman Shekhar wrote: “I am a student of BIT-Mesra. Students are coming back from different parts of the country after Holi vacation. Don’t you have any sense or responsibility? We feel unsafe residing in hostels and using common bathrooms. Take immediate action.”
Another Twitter user, Mehul Kumar, said: “Governments of Bihar and Odisha had no cases of COVID-19 but the government took steps to ensure the safety of the people. So I urge you to take some steps to stop mass gatherings.”
Some users used sarcasm to suggest that the state government was waiting for COVID-19 patients in Jharkhand to take preventive measures.
On Sunday, state health minister Banna Gupta tweeted that he had written to chief minister Hemant Soren urging him to close down educational institutions and public places such as parks and malls as a precautionary step.
Arvind Sinha, chief scientist of the National Metallurgical Laboratory in Jamshedpur, said: “I think the focus should be more on raising awareness on hygiene and precaution rather than closing down everything.”