Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired an all-party meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs over the management of Coronavirus situation in Delhi.
At the meeting, Shah said that by June 20, Delhi government will start conducting 18,000 COVID-19 tests per day, Delhi BJP Chief, Adesh Kumar Gupta informed reporters.
Further, the Home Minister assured that everyone will have the right to testing.
The BJP had suggested that charges at private hospitals should be fixed. Taking cognizance of the matter, Home Minister has constituted a committee which will submit a report within two days. Based on the report, price capping will be done for private hospitals, Gupta said.
The Delhi BJP also demanded that 50 per cent charges be waived on testing, which Amit Shah has approved, he added.
Meanwhile, Delhi Congress chief Anil Kumar, who also attended the all-party meet, told reporters that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been “misleading people and holding private hospitals responsible”.
“We have submitted evidence to the Home Minister. He has sent that for probe by Health Secreatary. Construction of three large hospitals, with 2609 beds, should have been completed by December 2019. What game is Delhi government playing?” Kumar questioned.
He further alleged that the Rs 1 crore compensation announced by Chief Minister Kejriwal for the kin of corona warriors has not been provided yet.
He further said that Amit Shah has accepted that treatment is possible only through testing and tracing policy followed by all countries.
“Everyone should have right to testing. Treatment is possible only through testing and tracing policy followed by all countries, HM has accepted that. He has assured that under a new testing policy everyone will have right to testing,” Anil Chaudhary said.
With Union Home Minister Amit Shah calling an all-party meeting on Monday morning to “review management of COVID-19 situation” in Delhi, the political signalling was unmistakable.
While Shah as the Home Minister stepped in only after the apex court’s unambiguous rap, calling the handling of the situation “horrendous, horrific, pathetic”, this all-party meeting comes after the one convened by Lt Governor Anil Baijal.
According to reports, representatives of the Delhi unit of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are said to have been present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, in the meeting, the opposition Congress had demanded COVID-19 testing to be provided to all, as it is everyone’s right. The party had also demanded that an amount of Rs 10,000 be paid to every family whose member is infected or in a containment zone.
The Congress has further demanded that the 4th year medical students be used as non-permanent resident doctors and due to the crunch of healthcare staff, 4th year students of Bachelor of Pharmacy or nursing be used as alternate for health staff.
Politically, the meeting sends out a signal that Amit Shah has taken charge of the situation in the national capital that has come under severe criticism from many quarters.
Interestingly, Monday’s meeting comes within 24 hours of the Centre attaching six Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officials to the Delhi government to help in Covid-19 management.
On Sunday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held two high-level meetings on management of the worrying COVID-19 situation in Delhi.
The first meeting was attended by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and top officials of the Union Home and Health Ministries, while the second was with with mayors and commissioners of Delhi’s three municipal corporations.
On Sunday, the Centre directed the Delhi government to double COVID-19 testing in the next three days and triple it in six days. The national capital saw a drop in testing from 7,000 to 5,000 per day and was reprimanded by the Supreme Court for the same on Friday.
The Centre has also decided to provide 500 railway coaches equipped with facilities for Coronavirus patients to tackle the shortage of beds in COVID-19 hospitals in the national capital.
Shah also ordered authorities to hand over the bodies of suspected COVID-19 cases in Delhi to relatives without waiting for laboratory confirmation of infection but the ashes should be treated with precaution and as per the government guidelines.
A home ministry spokesperson also said that three teams of four doctors each have been formed with doctors from AIIMS, and central and Delhi governments to inspect the healthcare facilities dedicated to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the national capital.
Delhi on Monday saw a spike of 2,224 cases and 56 deaths in last 24 hours taking the total number of infections to 41,182 and fatalities to 1,327.