TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy today lashed out at Centre and Telangana government for their "failure" to keep the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic at bay in the state and the country.
Speaking to the media, Reddy alleged, "The people of the country and the state are suffering due to the inefficiency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. It is unfortunate that the state still does not have an adequate number of testing kits, and is not bothered about tracing possible spreaders either. What is most concerning is that rapid antigen tests are often being unable to detect Covid-19 injections in people. Several affected people have been testing negative. This is not only dangerous for them but also for those around them."
He said that due to inadequate testing facilities, "Covid-positive" patients in the state were mingling freely with other people around them, and added that this could prove disastrous as undetected spreaders could infect large numbers of people.
Citing these issues, the Congress bigwig demanded that the state government conduct RTPCR tests on all the people of Telangana to successfully trace affected people who could be possible spreaders of the diseases. He even mentioned that the cost for the exercise would be Rs 6 crore, an amount the TRS regime could well afford to spend on the critical program.
The TPCC head then flayed the TRS government for not doing enough to strengthen the state's health sector to handle the pandemic, and for "diluting" the 104 and 108 emergency services as well.
He even alleged that the CM and his family were not interested in safeguarding the lives of the people from the deadly disease as no steps had been taken to include the treatment of Covid-19 in the state's Arogyasri healthcare scheme.
"I had to incur a bill of Rs 3 lakh for my Covid-19 treatment. Fortunately, I was able to afford the treatment. However, I am worried by the fact that many people in the state will not be able to pay such large sums for treatment," Reddy fumed.
The Congress has been demanding that Covid-19 treatment be subsidised for a while now. Some days ago, party MLA of the Mulugu constituency Seethakka had even
launched a fast-unto-death at Hyderabad's Indira Park to pressure the TRS government to do so.