A petition filed before the Delhi High Court has sought direction to the Election Commission to postpone the upcoming election in all five States for a few months or weeks in view of the ongoing wave of COVID-19.
The petition filed by Congress leader Jagdish Sharma said there was a growing concern of new variants, which are posing a grave threat of infection, especially in Delhi.
Mr. Sharma said: “Our health infrastructure is dangerously outstretched, understaffed and under resourced”. He claimed that many State governments and the Central government had assured to the people that they will build an infrastructure which can face any upcoming pandemic situation.
“The Chief Minister of Delhi has said in May 2021 that they will install 44 oxygen plants in Delhi in the next one month, but there has been no update on that promise or any improvement till date,” the petition, filed through advocate Rudra Vikram Singh, stated
“For the last two years, the country has faced two variants of COVID and till date the country has lost 4,84,213 lives due to the infection as per government record,” it added.
The petition said that due to elections in five States of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa, “almost all Ministers of the government are busy in elections and less concerned about the upcoming health emergency in the State”.
