Congress Asks KCR To Stop Blaming Opposition For Covid Situation

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy on Thursday asked Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Health Minister Etala Rajender to stop politicising the Covid-19 situation just to evade criticism and hide their failures.

"CM KCR had given a statement on March 7 denying the existence of Covid-19 in Telangana and describing it as a common flu which could be treated with a paracetamol. And despite the fact that thousands (or may be lakhs of people) got infected with the deadly virus and over 500 people lost their lives over the next 3-4 months, the Chief Minister has still not changed his attitude and approach towards the pandemic. Instead of attending to the issues related to Covid-19, the Chief Minister is busy doing reviews on subjects of much lesser importance in the present circumstances," Reddy said.

Reddy said that the TRS had been in power for the last six-and-a-half years and the KCR government had done nothing either to upgrade the health infrastructure in the state or at least maintain what existed at the time of statehood for the Telangana region. Therefore the TRS leaders, especially the Health Minister, should stop blaming the Congress to cover up their own inefficiency in handling the Covid-19 situation.

"On June 28, KCR gave a hint in the official press release that another lockdown could be imposed for 15 days in view of the rising number of cases. He created confusion among the people, and himself went into hiding for almost 15 days. He is yet to hold a detailed review meeting on the Covid-19 situation. He must order a probe into the huge increase in the number of cases in the recent past and the causes of the deaths. The government must study the pattern of how the virus has spread and why so many people were killed. Such studies always prove helpful in handling similar pandemics in future. However, KCR lacks seriousness and is waiting for the pandemic to end on its own," he said.

"If the claims being made by the Health Minister with regard to handling Covid-19 situation were true, then why are we still getting reports of patients being denied admission citing lack of beds as an excuse? Why are hundreds of nursing staff, class IV employees and sanitation staff in various hospitals and municipalities still holding protests demanding payment of salaries for the last two months? If all hospitals are up to the mark, why are some patients still making selfie videos complaining of negligence?" he asked.

Reddy said that Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar had admitted in the High Court that more than 750 complaints were received against the private hospitals for charging exorbitant bills from Covid-19 patients. "In that case, why has no action been taken on a single complaint so far?" he demanded to know.

He added that many doctors, paramedical staff, police personnel, sanitation staff and journalists, who were categorised as frontline warriors in the combat against Covid-19, had succumbed to the coronavirus, but the state government did not pay the demanded ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh to the families. He said that many states had paid Rs 1 crore as ex-gratia to the families of the dead frontline warriors, but the KCR government was not willing to emulate others in good things.

He said that the Chief Minister and the Health Minister should stop politicising the Covid-19 situation by targeting the opposition parties in their statements. "Instead of condemning the criticism, they should find out why they were being criticised. They should learn to respond to the positive suggestions being given by the Congress if they are genuine towards serving the people," he said.