Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday targeted the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh over its handling of the COVID-19 situation and accused it of adopting a mantra of “no test is equal to no corona” even as cases rise.
In a letter to the U.P. Chief Minister, Ms. Vadra said the battle against the pandemic could not be fought by just “managing publicity and news”. She noted that 2,500 COVID-19 cases were reported in U.P. on Friday. “Quarantine centres in U.P. are in a pathetic state. Because of this, people are not stepping out of their homes for getting tested,” she said. “This is a great failure of the government.”“There is an explosive rise in COVID-19 cases. If testing is not increased in a transparent manner, the fight against the pandemic will be incomplete and the situation can become more frightening,” she added.
Focussing on the shortage of beds in hospitals, she said, “The Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament from Varanasi, the Defence Minister from Lucknow, many other Union Ministers are from U.P. Why can’t temporary hospitals be opened in Varanasi, Lucknow, Agra?”
In a separate tweet, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi too attacked the Union government over news reports that Railways earned ₹429 crores by running special Shramik trains during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“There are clouds of disease and people are in trouble, but one seeks to benefit — this anti-people government is converting a disaster into profits and is earning,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted.
Hitting back on twitter, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said, “Only those who looted the country can describe subsidy as profit. The Railways spent more money in running Shramik trains than it received from State governments. People are now asking what happened to Soniaji’s promise of paying for people’s tickets”.
While the Railways have reportedly spent ₹2,142 crore on running Shramik Special trains, Mr. Goyal referred to the Congress president’s direction to Congress State units to pay the fares for the migrants.
While the Congress governments paid the subsidised fares of the Shramik special trains, the party claimed in BJP-ruled States, it was not allowed to do so.