HYDERABAD: Is the intelligent retinal imaging system (Iris) currently used at the state-run fair price shops (FPS) to identify beneficiaries turning out to be a superspreader of coronavirus? A PIL filed by Muthyam Prakash and two others of Gajularamaram in Rangareddy district says so.
The Telangana high court, which earlier had asked the state government to ascertain the truth in the allegation, was not convinced by the reply given by the state counsel on Tuesday and issued notices to the state civil supplies department’s principal secretary and commissioner of civil supplies to file their counters within two weeks explaining the safety aspects of Iris scanner.
A bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy asked the state counsel to come clean on the aspect of whether those who are using this at the FPS are maintaining any distance between the scanner and FPS workers while scanning the eyes of the beneficiaries.
State counsel Harender Pershad informed the bench that he spoke to the superintendent of Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital in Hyderabad.
“He (the superintendent) told me that there is no such possibility of spreading Covid-19 infection through the Iris scanner,” the state counsel said.
C Ramachandra Raju, counsel for the petitioners, alleged that workers at the FPS are applying these scanners on the people in such a way that they are touching the eyes of each beneficiary and thereby causing the spread.
“Let them use some third person identification methods to identify the beneficiaries and stop using the Iris scanners,” he said.
The state counsel could not answer whether the allegation that the scanner is touching the eyes of the beneficiaries.
“From what I could gather from the interaction I had with the hospital superintendent is that only certain rays are sent inside to identify a person and the gadget never touches a person,” he said.
“About how much distance is maintained between the gadget and the eye, I need to consult the superintendent again,” the state counsel said.