Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalgonda MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has strongly condemned Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s policy on conducting less number of tests for Coronavirus.
He was addressing a press conference at Jagityal along with TPCC Working President Ponnam Prabhakar, MLC Jeevan Reddy, MLA D. Sridhar Babu and other leaders on Thursday. They also participated in various programmes held on the occasion of death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been asking the affected countries to adopt a three-pronged strategy of ‘Trace, Test and Treat’ the Covid-19 patients, KCR has adopted a strange policy of not conducting the tests even for the strong suspects and secondary contacts. He said presently Telangana has the lowest testing in the country.
He said both the Central and State Governments have failed to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in the country, especially Telangana. He said while nearly 1600 per 10 lakh people were being tested for Coronavirus across the country, the average is just 650 per 10 lakh people in Telangana. He said this low rate of testing could prove to be highly dangerous for the entire society.
The TPCC Chief said not only more than 22,000 people have been tested in Telangana and the lowest rate was the reason for less number of identified Coronavirus patients. He said neighbouring States like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have tested about 2.5 lakh to 4 lakh people.
Further, he said despite approved by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), the State Government did not allow nine private laboratories and hospitals in the State to conduct Covid-19 tests. He said even the directions of High Court were not being implemented by the State Government which again prompted the court to intervene into the issue.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said testing was stopped in Suryapet which had emerged as a hotspot for Coronavirus after Hyderabad. He said presently an average of 250 tests were being conducted across the State.
The TPCC Chief said that the State Government has failed to help the migrant workers in the State. He said that the Congress leaders have helped the migrant levels in every possible manner. He demanded that the State Government disclose the figures of donations collected from NGOs, institutions and individuals for Coronavirus relief to Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. He said that the government behave in a transparent manner by placing details of receipts and expenditure.
Uttam Kumar Reddy also rejected the proposed comprehensive Agriculture Policy of TRS Government and described it as a move to harass the already distressed farmers. He said that CM KCR was trying to deprive the farmers from Rythu Bandhu assistance by forcing them to grow crop of government’s choice.
He said that the State Government has been advising farmers to grow to cotton on nearly 70 lakh acres. Stating that the cotton farmers could not find the buyers for over 50 years and therefore, what guarantees would be provided by the government to the farmers that their entire crop would be purchased.