Centre won't take Andhra Pradesh government view on coronavirus data, declares 11 districts hotspots

Centre won’t take Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government view on coronavirus data and recently declared 11 more districts as hotspots. Read here—

Even though Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government says there are only 27 Mandals as red zones and 44 as orange zones out of 676 mandals in the state, the centre does not believe it and declared 11 districts as red zones out of total 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh. Whereas there are more COVID-19 cases in Telangana and the CM of Telangana is for complete lockdown but the centre only declared 8 districts as red zones out of 33 districts. The internal sources in BJP high command told NewsX that the Centre completely trusts Telangana Government as far as coronavirus positive cases are concerned. Except for Srikakulam and Vijayanagaram districts, all districts i.e. Kurnool, Guntur, Nellore, Prakasam, Krishna, Kadapa, West Godavari, East Godavari, Chittoor, Visakhapatnam, and Anantapur are declared as red zones. Whereas in Telangana, only Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Warangal Urban, Ranga Reddy, Jogulamba Gadwal, Medchal Malkajgiri, Karimnagar, Nirmal are declared as Red zones.

It seems that the Central government has its own data as far as coronavirus spread in Andhra is concerned. The Union government released a list of hotspot zones in the country, including 170 districts classified as red zones out of them, a total of 50 are from south India. According to it, next to Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh is the worst affected state as COVID-19 positive cases in Andhra has crossed 500 and not just this, even the ruling party MLAs are violating lockdown rules.

Lanka Dinakar, BJP leader told NewsX ” There are many COVID -19 cases in Andhra Pradesh. the government of Jagan Mohan Reddy is hiding the data and conveniently releasing some cases only. Even Srikakulam and Vijayanagaram are not safe if the approach of the Government is lenient. There are hundreds of cases in towns like Nandyala and Ongole but the Government is not transparent” and the ex-CM and leader of opposition of Andhra Chandrababu Naidu expressed concern “The government of AP is lying on the number of tests it is conducting. There is no transparency. The government should realize that we contain the spread of the virus only with effective testing is taking place. Testing should be intensified to detect more cases. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s govt is under-reporting coronavirus cases in the state and conducting inadequate testing”

Andhra Pradesh government
Andhra Pradesh government

Senior cine producer and a resident of Vijayawada also wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India expressing serious concerns over AP govt’s conducting and monitoring the COVID-19 cases. He stated that the state government is not even providing the required Kits for examination and as a result the doctors and staff are unable to trace out the exact cases that have been affected by the disease so far. That apart, the doctors and staff have not been supplied with the masks and gloves and other necessary equipment to protect themselves while treating the patients.

Aswini Dutt accused that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister is interested in passing several GO’s for benefit of his Government in this critical situation rather than showing any interest to arrest the spread of coronavirus. Awini Dutt feels it is a fit case to take up the issue by the court to have judicial surveillance about the measures taken by State Government and the about the genuineness of statistics furnished by the Government about COVID cases.

BJP leader Lanka Dinakar said “COVID-19 pandemic is the issue of the world to fight against it, but Jagan Mohan Reddy led Andhra Pradesh Government approach hasn’t been that much of the serious as requires. Initially, Jagan Mohan Reddy tried to undermine the seriousness of COVID-19 for the sake of Local body Elections against the decision of the then State Election Commissioner. He said that COVID-19 is 14 days Cold and Fever, which can be relieved by consuming Paracetamol and applying the Bleaching powder. Lanka further says Jagan Mohan Reddy’s approach reveals his attitude to fight against COVID-19, still, he has no seriousness in is governance and hiding the facts and violating the quarantine rules wherever he wants like newly appointed State Election Commissioner who brought from outside the Andhra Pradesh by replacing the Andhra Pradesh COVID-19 warrior Nimagadda Ramesh.

The Hotspots are defined by the Union Health Ministry to be those districts that have either large numbers of people falling sick with COVID-19 or a steady increase in the number of individuals infected with the disease. These hotspot districts contribute 80% or more of the number of cases in India. The lockdown should be strictly implemented in these districts. But the government of Andhra Pradesh says that it’s very transparent in COVID- 19 data and it has doubled its capacity of testing.