With the cases of COVID-19 rising in western Uttar Pradesh, local BJP leaders are complaining against the local administration for mismanagement. After Agra Mayor Naveen Jain wrote to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Rajya Sabha member Kanta Kardam has raised the issue of negligence in Meerut’s Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Hospital, in a letter written to the CM.
She said that patients were avoiding getting admitted because of lack of treatment, food, and sanitation facilities in the hospital. She lamented the rising number of deaths in the district, including that of a BJP worker.
She added that in certain markets such as Delhi Road, Naveen Mandi and Lohiya Nagar, people didn’t seem to have fear of getting infected despite a spike in the number of cases and the administration was not ensuring proper testing in those areas.
She also demanded closure of wine shops as the district was in the red zone and social distancing was not being followed at these outlets. A similar demand was made by Sahibabad MLA Sunil Kumar Sharma. In a letter addressed to the CM, he demanded that if it was necessary to open wine shops, a COVID tax should be levied on liquor and it should be supplied only online.
‘Free hand to officials’
Sources in the party said that some leaders were agitated that the government was not listening to the party’s voices on the ground and had given the bureaucracy a free hand. “Opening the wine shops and letting labourers walk is not good for the party’s image,” said a source requesting anonymity. “People would soon start saying that the BJP is no different from other parties,” he said.
On Tuesday, the video of a member of BJP’s district committee Deepak Sharma went viral where he made allegations of corruption against the District Magistrate. A local journalist said one had to see who were raising the voice. “They could be those who had not been given their ‘cut’.”
Ms. Kardam told The Hindu that there was no division in the party. “We are fighting the battle against COVID together. Unlike the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, our cadre is working on the ground. However, there are certain officials who are still living in the past and are not able to put the message of Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath into practice. I wanted to highlight the gaps in the process and the CM has taken note of my letter.”
The party’s U.P. vice-president said one could not control the virus but one could certainly provide proper facilities to the infected persons. “We can certainly prevent people from dying because of the virus by timely intervention.”