A plea has been filed in the form of a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of the High Court of Telangana for the supply of masks, sanitizers, soaps, towel and water at all Paddy Procurement Centres.
The letter has been written by Advocate J Venudhar Reddy informing the Court that around four lakh workers are working at Paddy Procument Centres (PPC) without any mask or sanitizers, posing serious threat of spread of COVID 19 to the adjoining rural areas.
The petitioner has himself witnessed around 100 workers working in PPC at Kannekal Village of Madgulapalli Mandal, Nalgonda district where the workers have been working on the fields without taking any safety precautions.
The State Government has allowed procurement of paddy from farmers in order to meet the needs of essential food commodities amid COVID-19 Lockdown. This has been done to ensure the safety of farmers who can stay back in villages while the government itself is taking the initiative to procure paddy through procurement authorities.
However, the paddy has to undergo a process of drying before handing it over to the government, hence the farmers are engaging workers to dry paddy at PPCs.
-India Legal Bureau