The Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s perception as a strong leader who has made timely interventions to contain the coronavirus epidemic came under the scanner when a doctors’ body alleged that his government may have underreported COVID-19 cases in the state. Doctors For Seva, a collective of private doctors based in Hyderabad, raised doubts […]
About: Ahssanuddin Haseeb
Posts by Ahssanuddin Haseeb:
Why Taxi-Aggregators Offer ‘Lockdown Charity’ From ‘Public Donations’ To Few Drivers?
The Billion dollar startups Ola and Uber have helped barely 5 percent of their drivers despite asking users for donations to contribute to their relief funds during the #Covid lockdown crisis. Since several weeks, Uber users have been inundated with push notifications seeking contributions for its drivers; almost all of whom have been out of […]
The ‘Pain And Agony’ Of A Son Who Lost Ailing Mother With #COVID In Hyderabad
It was just after midnight on April 28, when Mohammed got the phone call he was dreading. For the last few days, his entire family was at home in a containment zone in Hyderabad while his mother was at the Gandhi Hospital, where all COVID-19 patients in Telangana undergo treatment. “Doctors treating my mother told […]
The Intricate Dance Of Politics And Power During A Pandemice
Every crisis, man-made or natural, is pregnant with political possibilities and politicians will take policy decisions based on their assessment of how their choices promote their political and personal power. A commonplace adage of the post-Cold War era of globalisation used to be that while ‘all economics is global, all politics is local’. The implication […]
Is Hyderabad Heading For An Exit Or For Lockdown 3.0?
Telangana must bite the bullet and end the complete lockdown, instead of focusing on areas where the COVID-19’s prevalence is high. It opted for an extension of the lockdown and the Centre went along with it. Put differently, the Centre extended it and complied. In Telangana, the 30 districts, 12 have below five cases, nine […]
Inside Rohingya Refugee Camps Fears Of Covid Spread And Religious Scapegoating
Indian Home Ministry directive to screen Rohingyas had more to do with suspected Tablighi Jamaat link than concern over their living conditions. Thousands of Rohingya refugees in Hyderabad are at high risk for contracting Covid-19, as they live in cramped habitations and have limited access to public healthcare, activists say. Three weeks after the Centre […]
An ‘Eerie Ride’ On Hyderabad’s Empty Roads During Lockdown
Can we speed? Shall we speed? Is this the turn? Should I stop at the signal? Empty roads will have you questioning yourself at every corner. I always make it a point to be at the office during national holidays. To be honest, it is the joy of driving on relatively traffic-free roads that mostly […]
Poor Hyderabad Residents ‘Without Ration Cards’ Fear ‘Hungry Days’ Ahead
Many people in Hyderabad are started starving due to non-availability of ration and food in remote areas. Several families, residing as migrant workers or poor without ration cards and a section of lower middle class people applied for ration card and not yet received since years are facing hunger during this lockdown period. As a […]
An Ordeal Of ‘Hungry’, Stranded Migrant ‘Construction Workers’ In Hyderabad
Over 2,000 migrants from Srikakulam district work as daily wage labourers in the booming construction industry of Hyderabad narrates the ordeal of sorrow and hunger. No government or public representatives reached yet to feed them properly. “Our bags had already been packed by evening of April 13 in the hope of catching the earliest bus […]
Hyderabad Sex Workers ‘Starving’ In Lockdown Without Income
Hyderabad waits with bated breath for May 7 —the day the extended lockdown is supposed to end. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent nation-wide lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of the virus, has brought in its wake economic upheaval and financial predicaments. For one of the most marginalized communities, that already lives on the […]