The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the 20th of May, demanded resignation of Etela Rajender, the Health Minister of Telangana.
The BJP alleged the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Government of conducting less COVID-19 tests in the State.
While other states crossed lakhs of sample tests for the Novel Coronavirus 22,842 till the 15th of May.
The Union Health Ministry criticised K. Chandrashekar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, for not conducting enough tests. The Indian Health Ministry filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the TRS in the Telangana High Court (HC.)
Lashing out at the KCR led Telangana Government, the Union Health Ministry said small states like Chhattisgarh and Assam also conducted more teststest than Telangana.
On the other hand, the neighbouring State of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh also conducts 9,000 tests per day on average and Telangana’s average is just around 200 per day. States like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have tested over 3,00,000 and 1,75,000 cases respectively.
The BJP accused Etela Rajender of “endangering the entire population of Telangana by intentionally conducting the lowest number of tests than any other state in India, with a proportionate population.” In addition, the BJP accused the TRS Health Ministry of “underperformance during this massive health crisis but also willfully misled the people of the state, opposition and media by claiming the state was testing as per ICMR guidelines.”
Krishnasagar Rao, a member of the BJP said, “One cannot understand the intention of the state government behind this brazen deviation in reference to public health standard protocols.”
The issue of low testing and less Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits is pending in the Telangana High Court. In the past few days, doctors and other medical staff of private hospitals raised concern over low testing.
However, the State Government denied all the allegations regarding the low testing and assured precaution to prevent the spread of the Novel Coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Telangana reported a total of 1,634 cases of the Novel Coronavirus with 38 fatalities till the 20th of May.
Stay tuned for further updates.
