The Hyderabad police today arrested BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and other party leaders who were trying to hold a protest program at the Telangana corona command control centre in Koti demanding that the state government include Covid-19 in the state-run cashless Aarogyasri scheme.
Dr K Laxman, N Ramchander Rao and Chintha Sambamurthy were the other BJP leaders arrested.
Speaking on the occasion, Kumar condemned the arrest of the party leaders, and alleged that the state government had failed to control the virus. Claiming that lakhs of coronavirus detection tests were being performed in BJP-ruled states across the country, he alleged that the state government was not even performing the tests in thousands.
He also demanded that the state government issue a white paper on the funds released by the central government to the state government to control the coronavirus.
Rebutting the criticism of BJP national president J P Nadda by Telangana Health Minister Etala Rajender, he said that the state ministers had no moral right to question the honesty of Nadda, and mocked KCR as a "paracetamol CM". He also said that the CM and the state ministers had turned into jokers.
He however said that the BJP was ready to hold discussions with the state government on the containment of the virus, and that the party had demanded an all-party meeting on the issue.
Meanwhile, former MLC and BJP Telangana core committee member Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy was also house-arrested in the Narsingi Police Station limits. Reddy said that it was his democratic right to protest for better treatment for the coronavirus infections after the state government had "failed" in its duty to provide good treatment.