As the state corona count rose to 1,177 with 31 deaths, TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu squarely blamed the YSRCP dispensation for its failure to contain the spread of the virus.
Expressing concern over the surge in the number of corona positive cases in the state, Naidu said the Covid-19 cases are rising in at a faster rate than most other Southern States. In an open letter addressed to the people, the number of positive cases in Andhra Pradesh had doubled in the last one week. Naidu stated that Jagan has been misleading the state about the dangers of coronavirus outbreak. In early March, Jagan reassured the public that there was nothing to worry about, there was no need to panic button and that all was under control. Further, Naidu recalled the comments made by Jagan on corona “He said a scare is being created, there is no panic situation. It can be cured by paracetamol. This is a kind of virus that comes and goes. Now, Jagan is saying ‘We cannot completely eliminate the virus. In fact, we should now accept it as part of our lives. This only exposes the shallowness of the leadership. It shows sheer negligence of the government in dealing with coronavirus pandemic.”
Migrant workers are suffering the brunt of the corona virus. Their plight has been pathetic. The lockdown has forced thousands of people on to the streets. Many had to walk hundreds of kilometres to ride out the crisis with their families. The government has failed to address this problem, Naidu wrote.
Naidu questioned why the state government had procured one lakh rapid testing kits from the vendor Sandor Medicaids, a Hyderabad-based medical equipment supplier. Further, the senior TDP leader asked why the the government showed that the cost of each kit was Rs 730 plus GST while the Chhattisgarh government procured the same kits procured for Rs 337 plus GST
The government also failed on providing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to health officials. A severe shortage of protective equipment has put frontline fighters against the virus at grave risk. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. Do you send soldiers on the warfront without weapons? Then why are you sending doctors to fight this war without proper kits. We have the supply of personal protective equipment the frontline warriors need. The lack of wide scale testing is a huge problem,” a concerned Naidu wrote. Six members of the family of YSRCP MP were tested positive for the coronavirus and staffers of the AP Raj Bhavan were tested positive for Covid. This only reflects on the utter failure of the government in dealing with the pandemic.
