Telangana Congress leaders have massively responded to the party’s call for ‘SpeakUpTelangana’, posting videos of messages on social media platforms criticising the government for its ‘failure’ to tackle COVID-19.
TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, working presidents Ponnam Prabhakar and A. Revanth Reddy, TPCC COVID Committee chairman Marri Shashidhar Reddy, MLA T. Jagga Reddy, AICC secretary Ch. Vamshichand Reddy, general secretary Vinod Reddy and all senior leaders and party activists responded to the call.
Speaking to the cadre on Facebook, Mr. Uttam Reddy alleged that the negligence displayed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in handling the COVID crisis in the State was nothing short of cruelty.
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To avoid criticism, KCR government simply hushed up the real figures and manipulated data to show that the situation was under control, he claimed. “Telangana is still at the bottom in the list of States in terms of testing,” he said.
He said entire load of COVID-19 patients was put on Gandhi Hospital. Consequently, innumerable complaints of negligence have cropped up in the last few months. “The government even failed to upgrade all the government hospitals with basic oxygen supply in the last 5 to 6 months to deal with the situation. There is a huge shortage of ventilators, oxygen-equipped beds, doctors, para-medics and other infrastructure,” he said.
The TPCC chief also alleged that the health equipment procured was of poor quality and pointed out that nearly 150 doctors and other staff, including the Superintendent of Osmania General Hospital had contracted the virus. “This could have been avoided had they been provided with quality and standard PPE kits,” he said, adding that hundreds of frontline warriors had also also succumbed to COVID. “KCR and his team of inefficient ministers and incompetent officers were responsible for those deaths,” Mr Uttam Reddy charged.
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He reiterated the demand that COVID-19 treatment be brought under Aarogyasri scheme, and treatment should be totally free for all BPL families in Telangana. Further, he asked the State government to regulate the charges for COVID treatment in private hospitals.