Jaipur, April 14 (IANS) The Bhilwara Model, which drew laurels across the globe, seems to be losing ground in Jaipur's Ramganj area with COVID-19 numbers swelling each day, taking Rajasthan to fourth in the national tally after Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu with 969 patients in the state, out of which 443 are in Jaipur as per data released by state health ministry on Tuesday.

Even top officials confirmed to IANS that the Bhilwara Model, which focused on ruthless containment, needs to be tweaked in the congested lanes of Jaipur's Ramganj as its demographic and socio-economic conditions are different from Bhilwara.

Surprisingly, the ‘Mahacurfew' which was successfully implemented in Bhilwara, seems to be failing in Jaipur as there have been instances of people slipping away from Ramganj to reach other places of the state, be it Barmer, Sikar and other local places in the Rajasthan capital becoming a major carrier of the infection and spreading it to new districts.

Surprisingly, a government teacher from Jaipur's Ramganj recently travelled 700 kilometres in his private vehicle with three other people and was later tested positive in Barmer. A case has been registered against him.

Similarly, a 70-year-old man drifted away from Ramganj silently with two men to reach Palsana in Sikar and was later tested positive.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot replying to an IANS query on this front said that such people are enemies of the human cause and hence authorities are taking tough action against them to ensure no one repeats this offence.

ADG B.L. Soni also said, "We have closed historic Ajmeri Gate which was made in the 18th century to make sure that there is no movement from Ramganj to Jaipur city. Although there are very few such cases, but yes, even one such case is a worry for all as they have spread the infection in other towns," he said adding "we are working tough to stop such cases."

The state on March 31 had 83 patients which has now swollen to 443 in last 13 days pushing Jaipur among other hotspots in the country.

Chief secretary DB Gupta said, "Ramganj faces different socio-economic conditions hence implementing Bhilwara Model is a little difficult here. In Bhilwara, people followed social distancing meticulously as they lived in urban style accommodation, which is a problem in Ramganj as it is a highly congested zone. Also people are not cooperating when asked to be shifted to quarantine centre which was not a challenge in Bhilwara as everyone was literate and hence cooperated with us," he told IANS.

Also, the asymptomatic people are difficult to handle for they don't believe in medical reports, he added.

Bhilwara in all terms was far more disciplined, he said.

Additional chief secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told IANS, "Ramganj is a high density populated area. Even if we want home-based social distancing, it's physically not possible. So we have tweaked the Bhilwara model, which is of ruthless containment and are focussing on cluster-based testing with Bhilwara model as our base."

"We are ramping up diagnostic samples as the objective is to check the community spread. We have roped in local MLAs and religious leaders to convince the community members to cooperate with healthcare workers," he said.

--IANS

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