Mumbai: The Union Government informed the Bombay High Court on Thursday has provided thermal imaging scanners at airports in Nagpur and Pune to screen passengers from African countries for possible Ebola infection. Scanners were transferred from Goa and Hyderabad airports to airports in Nagpur and Pune, central government lawyer Rui Rodrigues told a Bombay High Court headed by Justice Abhay Oka. 

These scanners would be functional within a week, the government said, after which the Court asked the Centre to file a compliance report on October 1 The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar alleging that India is not fully equipped to prevent the spread of the dreaded epidemic. 

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had asked the state government of Maharashtra to provide medical screening facilities at airports in Pune and Nagpur, on the lines of such facilities in Mumbai and Delhi. 

The Maharashtra government had said in an affidavit that the Centre had not provided scanners Nagpur and Pune. The High Court asked the Centre to provide the equipment as soon as possible. 

The advice of the Central Government, said the measures 'appropriate' screening were in place at ports and airports. Tirodkar PIL had alleged that several Indian or NRI in Africa were returning due to the outbreak of Ebola in Africa, but no facilities either to detect or treat the epidemic in India.