Hyderabad: Expressing serious concern over rising number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the State, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President and Nalgonda MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s inefficiency and inability are responsible for the present situation. He also announced the schedule for a series of agitation programmes to be held in the next one week on various issues.
He was addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday along with TPCC Working Presidents Ponnam Prabhakar and Kusum Kumar, Vice-President Dr. Mallu Ravi, AICC Spokesperson Dr. Dasoju Sravan and other leaders.
Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that KCR Govt has completely failed to handle the Coronavirus situation. He said that the first Coronavirus case was reported in Telangana about three months ago and experts had issued multiple warnings predicting a huge rise in the number of cases. However, he said even after three months, KCR’s government took no measures to handle the situation in an effective manner. The situation is so horrible that there are no beds in the hospitals to treat the Covid-19 patients. He said that the guidelines to trace, test and treat Covid-19 patients were not followed and KCR’s negligent and casual approach led to huge spread of the disease with no medical infrastructure in place to treat the affected people.
The TPCC Chief said there was only one COVID-19 hospital, the Gandhi Hospital for the nearly four crore population of Telangana. He said that the lockdown period was not utilised properly to upgrade the infrastructure. Consequently, today the authorities are unable to attend to rising number of cases in the state. He said that the Congress party has been raising the issue of less testing in Telangana. Reddy said a representation was also made with the Governor on the issue. Even the High Court has given several suggestions to increase the testing rate. However, the KCR government is not willing to listen to opposition parties, the Governor or even the High Court. He said that the government has failed to provide Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits even to the doctors who are treating patients. Consequently, several doctors, nurses and other para-medical staff were infected with the deadly virus. Similarly, several police personnel, sanitation workers and journalists too caught the virus. He said these cases clearly expose the failure and proves the TRS government’s inefficiency.
Uttam Kumar Reddy reiterated the demand that all frontline warriors against Coronavirus including doctors, para-medical staff, policemen, sanitation workers and journalists be paid an ex-gratia of Rs. 50 lakh if they die of COVID-19. He said that the Central Government has already made an announcement that doctors and para-medics would be given an ex-gratia of Rs. 50 lakh. However, this decision is not being implemented by the government. He also demanded Rs. 10 lakh ex-gratia for the poor whose lives were taken by the disease.
The TPCC Chief said that The PCC Task Force Committee on Covid-19, headed by Marri Shashidhar Reddy, would make a representation with the Central Team, which is visiting Hyderabad, to expose the negligence of the state government in managing Containment Zones. He announced that Congress leaders would address press meets on June 30 at all Assembly headquarters to expose the failures of the TRS government handling the situation.
Uttam Kumar Reddy also slammed the TRS Government for inflated electricity bills given to consumers this month. He demanded that the electricity bills for the lockdown period of two months should be waived off, especially for the BPL families. He also demanded that the power companies should adopt telescopic methodology to generate electricity bills by scrapping away the non-telescopic method which will benefit consumers. He said that the Congress party would organise protests against inflated electricity bills with black badges and flags in all Mandal & Assembly headquarters on July 3.
The TPCC also announced that protest would be held on June 29 against the hike in petrol and diesel prices in all Rural District Headquarters and memorandums will be submitted to the District Collectors. Similarly, protests will be held in urban areas and mandal headquarters on July 4.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Congress party would organise birth centenary celebrations of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao from June 28. The celebrations will go on for a year by way of organising different programmes. He also reminded that the then Congress government in undivided Andhra Pradesh had passed a resolution in the Assembly demanding a Bharat Ratna for PV Narasimha Rao. He said Asia’s longest flyover in Hyderabad was also named after him. He said that the party would welcome centenary celebrations by anyone, including the state government.