- (1.) Pursuant to our earlier order the learned Advocate General has placed before us the communication received from the District Magistrate, Dakshin Dinajpur with regard to the setting up of a COVID hospital adjacent to the Subhayan Home building. The learned Advocate General has submitted that it is the duty of the State to ensure that the inmates of the homes are no way affected by setting up of the proposed COVID hospital and the State is fully alive to the safety and security of the said children.
(2.) Learned Advocate General has also assured us that the temporary operationalisation of the Youth Hostel building as a COVID hospital would no way affect any safety and security measures that are required to be followed during this COVID pandemic and the welfare of the children would always be prioritize over any other issues. It appears that the report is accompanied by a communication from the Superintendent dated 25th July, 2020 wherefrom it appears that he had taken a different stand from his earlier stand and now had suggested that the functioning of the COVID hospital at the Youth hostel building would not be a health hazard for the inmates of the home or would no way affect the functioning of the JJBs and CWC.
(3.) During the course of hearing the learned Advocate General has submitted that so far as the entry and exit of the Youth hostel building is concerned and the road alignment leading to the said building, it shall be ensured that the patients of such proposed COVID hospital would not travel the same pathway and the said COVID hospital would be made functional only after due consultation is made with the Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal. Ms. Ghosh, Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal has submitted that the department was not aware of the earlier communication from the Superintendent and as such was not in a position earlier to respond to the views expressed by the Superintendent which was purely his personal. She, however, had agreed that the said COVID hospital can be made functional only after it is ensured that the safety of the inmates of the home are not going to be affected.;