PIL filed seeking relief

Kathmandu, April 12

A public interest litigation was filed at the Supreme Court today demanding relief for poor people stranded in Kathmandu due to the ongoing lockdown.

Senior advocates Prakash Sharma, Dinesh Tripathi, advocate Kamal Koirala and law student Sanjay Adhikari filed the PIL at the apex court saying the government which was supposed to respect people’s right to food and right to live with dignity had neither provided food to all the stranded people nor given them the option to safely reach their homes during the lockdown.

The petitioners have stated that the news of poor people walking on foot for hours to reach their homes highlighted their plight and the government’s indifference towards stranded people. They said the situation of construction workers staying at construction sites was deplorable due to the prolonged lockdown.

The petitioners argued that those wanting to go home should be tested for COVID-19 and allowed to carry on if they tested negative.

They stated that the government should provide psychological counselling to the public to help them deal with fear and the psychological impacts the threat of COVID-19 pandemic was having on people’s minds.

The first hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 13, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.