Facing many different questions on the Sprinklr agreement, soon after the Kerala High Court’s order, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government gives high priority to data security.
The court said that the state government should anonymise data and Sprinklr should not breach confidentiality. It, however, refrained from interfering in the agreement itself, not wishing to upset the COVID-19 control measures taken by the government.
Pinarayi, while repeating that he hasn’t received the order yet, said that the court has rejected the demands of the Opposition to cancel the agreement or stay it. “The court has asked to go ahead with the work we have been doing and that’s what the government shall do,” he said.
On being asked about hiring an advocate from Mumbai for the case, the Chief Minister said that it should be the worry of the opposing party at the court, not the media’s. “Don’t put these ‘accusations’ against people. It is your question, not of the people,” Pinarayi said.
On Friday, the state, which has been seeing more than ten cases in the last few days, reported only three positive cases of COVID-19, while 15 others have recovered from the disease. The Chief Minister, however, began the press conference on a sad note, noting the demise of a four-month-old baby in Malappuram, who had heart-related ailments and had contracted COVID-19.
All the three new cases on Friday were infected through contact, the CM said. They are all in Kasaragod. The state has now recorded a total of 450 cases, out of which 116 are under treatment, three have passed away, and while the others have recovered. Kannur has the most number of people under treatment now with 56, while in Kasaragod the number is 18. There are now no positive cases in Thrissur and Alappuzha districts. However, these cannot be converted to green zones as it has been proved earlier that positive cases may arise as long as there are people under observation, and changing zones now and then doesn’t make sense.
The CM also addressed the problem of people with serious ailments other than COVID-19 in getting treatment. Local self-governing bodies shall take care of it, he said. “People needing dialysis, people with organ transplants and cancer patients whose income had stopped due to the lockdown will benefit from this.”
Border crossing, which has been happening through several state borders, should also be handled carefully, he said. “This week, 57 people have walked from Coorg in Karnataka to Kannur through forests. We have put them up in two corona centres started in Iritty.”
People from Kanyakumari and other neighbouring districts also used to come to the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram for treatment. Pinarayi said that the district hospital in Kanyakumari has been converted into a cancer treatment centre for their benefit, with the cooperation of the Tamil Nadu government.
On bringing bodies back from Gulf countries
The state government has requested the Prime Minister to instruct the Indian embassies of various countries in avoiding the delay of bringing the bodies of Malayalis from Gulf countries, who died for reasons other than COVID-19. “Indian embassies say that a no-objection certificate is needed for the clearance certificate. But the centre has earlier said that no such certificate was needed for bringing bodies of people who died for other reasons. We have requested the PM to instruct the embassies in this regard.”
The CM also appreciated the work of Kudumbashree workers in running 75 % of the community kitchens, making cotton masks and sanitisers, taking the message about precautions to homes and more. He also lauded the postal department in taking welfare pensions home. “The Kerala postal circle has brought out a special postal cover called ‘My Corona Fighters’ for children under 12, sitting at home in lockdown,” he said.