Priyanka slams UP government’s response to second wave of Covid
Alleging a governance failure in Uttar Pradesh in the face of Covid-19 second wave, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the Yogi Adityanath dispensation long ceased to act as a protector and support system for the people in the state and increasingly assumed the role of an “aggressor”.
In an interview, the Congress general secretary in-charge for UP also said the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic was simply another reflection of the UP government’s “arrogant, autocratic and inhuman attitude” towards the people of the state.
Her remarks came amid a steep rise in coronavirus cases in the state. The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday reported a record single-day spike of 34,379 Covid-19 cases and 195 fatalities. This has pushed the state’s infection tally to 9,76,765 and the death toll to 10,541.
Asked about the grim Covid-19 situation in the state, the Congress leader said the fundamental issue is that the government in UP has long ceased to act as a protector, facilitator and support system for the public.
“It (the state government) has increasingly assumed the role of an aggressor. The handling of the pandemic is simply another reflection of its arrogant, autocratic and inhuman attitude towards the people of UP,” she said.
The biggest failure has been in governance as there has been no planning, no preparation and no foresight whatsoever, the Congress leader alleged.
“Countries all over the world faced a second wave -- what did we learn from them? How did we use the gap between the first and second wave to prepare UP for what was inevitably going to come?” she asked.
The UP government’s own serosurvey results showed 5 crore people were exposed to the virus which was indicative of a second wave coming, she said.
“The government was advised to exponentially ramp-up testing. What happened? They reduced overall testing, switched to up to 70% antigen testing and ignored their own serosurvey reports,” she said, hitting out at the state government.
Rather than putting every single resource into saving lives and combating the pandemic, the UP government is still wasting time and resources on “covering up” the truth, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged.
“The government has let people down. Their incompetence and lack of clarity is exacting an unprecedented human cost that no one should ever have had to pay,” she said.
On the alleged lack of preparation to deal with the second wave, she said, “How else can the chief minister and his government explain that despite having months of time between one wave and the other, no effort was made to increase UP’s capacity for hospital beds, for oxygen or for the availability of Covid-19 medication.
“How else can they justify the number of hurdles they have placed before the public as it suffers through the horrors of the pandemic?” she asked.
She also asked where else in the world does one need approval from the district medical officer or the district magistrate to get admission to a hospital in the middle of a devastating pandemic.
“It is unheard of. How can the government justify that only 30 per cent of the testing being done in UP is RT-PCR and 70 per cent is antigen testing? Reports from across the state are coming in that private labs are being verbally instructed not to test. What kind of governance is this?” she said.
The UP government has been rejecting criticism by opposition parties on its handling of the Covid-19 situation.
The Congress leader had earlier accused the Uttar Pradesh government of hiding coronavirus figures and said had they been cautious from day one people would not have witnessed such times.