After grabbing headlines in January for allegedly staging a seditious play that led to the controversial arrests of a teacher and a parent, Shaheen Urdu Primary School in north Karnataka’s Bidar has now been converted into a government quarantine facility, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The district administration in Bidar reached out to chairman of Shaheen Group of Institutions, Dr Abdul Qadir earlier this week to request their premises for quarantining people who had been identified as primary contacts of the COVID-19 patients.
The sedition case was the subject of national discourse as lawyers, parents and activists came down heavily on ‘police excesses’ as cops repeatedly interrogated minors aged 9-12 years for prolonged periods over a 3-minute play that criticised CAA-NRC. Many parents and teachers of the school feared they were subjects of a smear campaign to sully the name of the Muslim-affiliated institution.
“We have about 193 people presently quarantined in our main branch. Initially, there were about 130 people and 60 more people were moved on Wednesday. This includes men, women and children who are the primary contacts of the COVID-19 positive people in our district. They were moved here after some residents kicked up a fuss over the quarantine facility being in their area, exposing them to risk.”Thouseef Madikeri, CEO of Shaheen Group
Providing 3 Square Meals, Masks & Buckets
According to Thouseeef Madikeri, those in quarantine were earlier being kept at the Backward Caste and Minorities government hostel in Bidar, but had to be moved out after residents objected to a quarantine facility being set up in a residential area.
“We are taking care of everything for them. From food to snacks to masks to anything they need, we are giving it after preparing in the most hygienic way. Healthcare workers are also coming to collect blood samples from here to be sent for testing to Gulbarga, which takes time. They can stay here for as long as the government wants.”Thouseeef Madikeri
He added that buses and vehicles owned by the institution had already been provided to the local administration a fortnight ago for spreading awareness and for health workers to conduct outreach programmes, but the request for beds and stay, had come only this week.
Of the approximately 3,000 students in the institution, there are about 200 students, primarily from the north like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh who are still being taken care of in the hostel in another campus.
Akshay Sridhar, assistant commissioner of Bidar district, confirmed that the school was now a government quarantine facility.
“We are trying to take over residential schools located outside residential pockets. So far we have approached 2-3 schools, of which Shaheen School is the first. After the testing period, we send them to home quarantine. So, for the testing period we are keeping them there,” he said.
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