The Telangana government has been under scrutiny for quite some time now, especially for the way it has been dealing with the Coronavirus situation in the state. While everything looked promising in the state at the beginning, things slowly started to go downhill after that, with the least number of tests and inadequate facilities at government hospitals.
While states like Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are conducting as many as 20,000 tests per day, the state of Telangana is not even conducting 5,000 tests per day. As a result, the virus continues to spread like wildfire in the state, especially in the capital city of Hyderabad.
The government of Telangana was previously ordered by the state High Court to conduct regular tests on a daily basis, and to release a report of the same. While the government did so for a few days, it stopped doing it very soon. According to the latest reports, no tests will be conducted in the state for six days, as all the laboratories are being shut down for sanitation purposes. This is irking people more than usual. First, there’s no proper testing, and now there’s no testing at all for the next six days at least. Also, many sources say that very few laboratories are following the test protocols laid down by ICMR, while most are not following it.
The High Court of Telangana has once again intervened and has given an ultimatum to the government. The High Court said that the government cannot get away with not informing the people of Telangana about the reality of circumstance in the state. It also said that the government is to release a proper medical bulletin every single day, that consists of the number of tests it has conducted the previous day, and the number of people that have tested positive. The High Court also specified that this medical bulletin is to consist of ward-wise details of coronavirus cases as well.
The High Court also ordered the government to submit its containment zones policy, the number of tests it conducted in the last 20 days, and also the details pertaining to the Central Team’s visit. If the government failed to do this by the 17th of this month, then the High Court said that the Chief Secretary, Principal Health Secretary and other officials will have to appear in court.
On the other hand, after Chief Minister KCR announced the centenary celebrations on occasion of P.V.Narasimha Rao’s 100th birth anniversary, the United Muslim Forum exxpressed objections to the same. It stated that it was during P.V.Narasimha Rao’s tenure that the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished, and that their sentiments were hurt after hearing about the centenary celebrations. They also said that the government of Telangana should focus more on handling the situation of coronavirus rather than spending money on Centenary Celebrations.
KCR hasn’t yet responded to either the High Court, or to UMF. It is now to be seen what the CM has to say in this regard, or if he chooses to be silent.