TN allocates Rs1 billion to prepare for third wave
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has allocated Rs1 billion to support measures required to deal with a feared third wave of the Covid pandemic.
In a statement, Stalin said the money would be spent on purchasing liquid medical oxygen for government hospitals and making other preparations to deal with the third wave.
He said Rs500 million has already been allocated to buy Covid test equipment.
“We can carry out some 160,000 RTPCR tests. The government has also allocated Rs410 million to buy oxygen cylinders and concentrators from foreign countries like Singapore.”
The Rs1 billion has been drawn from the donations received to the Chief Minister’s Covid Relief Fund, he said. The fund now has a Rs3.53 billion.
Separately, officials said the government has takenactionon48,500grievancepetitionsreceived under the ‘Chief Minister in Your Constituency’ scheme since Stalin came to power on May 7.
On Tuesday, Stalin met 11 petitioners at the Secretariat here and handed over to them necessary orders.
Stalin, during his election campaign, had promised that petitions from the public would be addressed within 100 days of the government formation.
IAS officer Shilpa Prabhakar Satish was recently named to head a special division that would take steps to redress within 100 days grievances put forth by the people during the election tour of Stalin.
Meanwhile, the Madras High Court on Tuesday queried with the state government if proper permission was sought from the Supreme Court to constitute the panel headed by retired judge AK Rajan to review the national medical entrance exam, NEET.
The court was responding to a petition filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, challenging the appointment of a panel.
The court said the state government cannot take any measure that is against the Supreme Court’s verdict, and directed both the union government and state government to respond on the issue.
The BJP said the panel is unconstitutional, illegal, unfair and without legal justification.
The way the commitee was appointed is itself illegal since most of the members who are part of the commitee are opposed to NEET.
The BJP also has stated that the commitee’s public opinion seeking exercise is done in haste and requested a stay on all the proceedings until an order is passed.