32 inmates of Mathura jail, including a jailed PFI member, test positive for Covid-19

AGRA: At least

32 inmates of Mathura jail

, including Popular Front of India’s student wing national general secretary Rauf Sharif, were on Tuesday tested positive for Covid-19. The deputy jailor of the district jail was also found infected with the contagious disease. Sharif is accused of trying to stir unrest in the wake of gang-rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Hathras. He has been lodged in the prison since February 15.

Senior superintendent of

Mathura

district jail Shailendra Maitrey said that all the infected jail

inmates

have been put in a separate barrack that has been designated as L1 facility.

“Two doctors from the district hospital are deputed there. Samples of another 55 inmates have been taken and their reports are awaited,” he added.

According to the health department, total active cases in Mathura are 2,881. So far, 215 deaths have been recorded due to Covid-19 in the district.

Meanwhile, UP minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary has written a letter to district magistrate of Mathura asking him to direct block development officers and ADO to conduct sanitization of each village of the district.

In the letter, Chaudhary said, “Pandemic has spread in the villages after panchayat elections, even though all proper arrangements were made by the government. As gram pradhans have no right to conduct this work now, BDOs and ADOs should be made responsible for the task.”

“We are also urging social workers to sanitize the villages and the administration should also contact them and motivate them to do it,” the letter reads.