In a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has appealed to him that care should be taken to ensure that the Tablighi Jamaat congregation incident is not made into an excuse to target the Muslim community.
In the letter,Yechury also urged Kovind to see to it that significant part of the funds collected under PM Cares are transferred to the state governments.
"Attempts are being made to blame a particular community for thespread of the virus. The organisers of Tablighi were veryirresponsible. This, however, cannot be the excuse to target theMuslim community as a whole. Unless stopped, this will disrupt thepeople's United struggle against Covid pandemic," he said.
He also sought the President'sintervention to merge this newly created fund with the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
"Further, as the delivery of health is primarily the responsibility ofstate governments, bulk of this fund should be transferred to therespective states to ensure effective implementation of measures to fight COVID 19," he said.
Raising the issue of shortage of medical kits, Yechury said aggressive augmentation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) must be undertaken immediately.
"It is being universally commented that the testing rate in India isone of, if not, the lowest in the world. As opposed to 7,659 permillion in South Korea, in India the figures is an abysmal low of 32.This is extremely dangerous for the future. The country needs to testas extensively as possible, identify the clusters where the virus isbeing transmitted, isolate them and enforce lockdown in those areasand not countrywide," he said.
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