Telangana Government Neglecting Covid Warriors: Congress

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy alleged that the state government was totally neglecting the frontline warriors in the battle against the coronavirus.

Reddy said that the frontline warriors including doctors, para-medical staff, police personnel, sanitation workers, journalists and others were risking their lives every day to protect the people from the deadly coronavirus. However, they were not getting the required medical attention if they contracted Covid-19.

He specifically alleged that the police personnel were not getting free treatment under the Aarogya Bhadra scheme due to the non-payment of dues by the state government to the private hospitals.

"It is highly unfortunate that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had not held a single meeting to check the facilities being provided to the frontline warriors. The state government is not maintaining any data of the frontline warriors who are contracting Covid-19, or at least of those who are succumbing to the disease. This is nothing but utter disrespect to the people risking their lives to save others," he said.

Reddy added that both the union and the state governments were grandiloquently calling the frontline workers as warriors against Covid-19, but were not willing to recognise them as martyrs in case they died doing their job.

"The union government went on record in Parliament admitting that it did not have any data of the doctors who died due to Covid-19. It simply shifted the blame onto the state governments saying that it was their duty to maintain the data as health was a state subject. This is completely inhuman. And the situation gets much worse in Telangana since the TRS government does not maintaining any data of any frontline workers, or indeed of the real number of coronavirus cases in general," he said.

He pointed that when KCR faced criticism for not attending the last rites of martyr Colonel Santosh Babu, he immediately rushed to the latter's house in Nalgonda and paid an ex-gratia of Rs 5 crore, allocated a house site to his family, and appointed the Colonel's widow as a Deputy Collector.

"KCR acted promptly to protect his image and cover up the sin of not honouring a martyr. Hopefully at least due to this pressure by us the Chief Minister will take similar and immediate steps to help the families of the frontline warriors who died due to Covid-19," Reddy said.

Reddy also demanded that the entire list of frontline warriors who contracted Covid-19 and those who achieved martyrdom must be placed in the public domain so as to enlighten the people about their sacrifices.