Congress MP A. Revanth Reddy has alleged that the Central committee led by Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal visiting the State to study the COVID-19 situation has refused to meet the delegation of Congress MPs.
The issue was brought to the notice of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who has redirected the request to the committee, Mr. Reddy said. Yet the committee is not inclined to meet the Congress delegation apparently under pressure from the Telangana government, he claimed.
‘Need expert panel’
In a letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, he demanded that the government constitute an expert committee and take the Opposition parties into confidence to jointly fight the situation arising out of the spread of COVID-19. He accused the Chief Minister of behaving like an expert himself and said that his attitude has worsened the situation.
Attacks CM
He also alleged that the Chief Minister has been misleading people on the coronavirus issue since his statement in the Assembly about using paracetamol to drive away the virus. When Congress MLA Seethakka spoke on the seriousness of the pandemic, she was ridiculed by the CM himself and that non-serious attitude has pushed the State into a dangerous zone, he claimed. The government is shying away from the “Trace, Test and Treat” method that has given positive results across the globe, he added.
The Congress MP also alleged that a senior officer had called up officials of the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to go slow on testing as pressure was mounting on Telangana government for more tests like AP was doing. The AP govt has conducted more than 6 lakh tests while it was around 70,000 in Telangana, Mr. Reddy added.