Following an all-party meeting over the management of Coronavirus situation in the National Capital Region (NCR), which includes Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh and parts of Haryana, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said that parties should keep aside political differences an work together to fight the pandemic.
Taking to Twitter, Shah said that all parties must forget political differences and work in the interests of the people of Delhi under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He added that the solidarity of all the parties will enhance people’s trust and strengthen the fight against Coronavirus.
“A united face of all political parties will enhance people’s trust and the situation in Delhi will be soon normal. I appeal to all political parties to urge their workers to ensure that the decisions taken by the Centre for the people of Delhi are implemented on ground,” the Home Minister said.
Representatives of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) attended the meeting.
At the meeting, it was decided that by June 20, Delhi government will start conducting 18,000 COVID-19 tests per day.
The Home Minister also assured right to testing for everyone.
Amit Shah accepted the Congress’ submission that treatment is possible only through testing and tracing policy followed by all countries and assured that under a new policy, everyone will have the right to testing.
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.
Meanwhile, the BJP suggested that charges at private hospitals should be fixed. Taking cognizance of the matter, Home Minister constituted a committee which will submit a report within two days. Based on the report, price capping will be done for private hospitals.
Amit Shah also reportedly approved BJP’s demand to waive 50 per cent charges on testing.
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.
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.
In the meetings, the Centre directed the Delhi government to double COVID-19 testing in the next three days and triple it in six days.
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.
The high-level meetings come after the apex court’s unambiguous rap on Friday, calling the handling of the situation “horrendous, horrific, and pathetic”.
The Supreme Court had come down heavily on the Delhi government over its handling of dead bodies in hospitals stating it reflected a “very sorry state of affairs” in the national capital amid a spike in Coronavirus cases.
It further slammed the fall in testing compared to cities such as Mumbai even as infections continue to spike at an alarming rate in the country’s capital.
The top court observed that it is the duty of every state government to increase COVID-19 testing and not keep people waiting for long to get tested. Ordering the Delhi government to increase testing capacity in NCR, the Supreme Court made it clear that no one should be denied tests.
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.
Delhi has seen a spurt in Coronavirus cases and over 1,000 new cases daily for the past few days. It is currently the second worst-hit state in terms of cases after Maharashtra and third worst-hit in terms of fatalities after Gujarat.