NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD/MUMBAI, MAY 26
A team of Congress leaders on Tuesday visited the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital to study the condition of its COVID-19 facility, after the Gujarat High Court called it ‘pathetic’ and equated it to a ‘dungeon’.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Congress alleged on Tuesday that the BJP government in Gujarat is not conducting enough COVID-19 tests and is also suppressing related data.
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Chavda, who visited the hospital along with senior leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Paresh Dhanani and a few other party MLAs, slammed the state government for not conducting enough tests, as a result of which people were admitted to the hospital at a critical stage and died of the infection.
The delegation had to wait for an hour but M M Prabhakar, the officer on special duty for 1,200-bed COVID facility, could not make himself available, Chavda alleged, asking if the official was acting at the behest of State Health Minister Nitin Patel by not meeting them.
Other doctors refused to share any information about the treatment for COVID-19 patients or speak about the controversial Dhaman-1 ventilators, which were developed by Rajkot-based firm Jyoti CNC and supplied to government hospitals, he said.
“However, they agreed that it was not a ventilator, but was just a machine that supplies oxygen to patients,” he said.
Chavda further claimed that doctors had attributed the high mortality rate at the hospital to low testing rates, which had led to delayed diagnosis and admission.
Dhanani accused the government of wrongdoing over Dhaman-1 ventilators, and said the equipment had received approvals within 24 hours and it was supplied in large numbers to government hospitals even when it was not effective on critical COVID-19 patients, as agreed upon by experts.
An Ahmedabad-based firm had gotten the job of upgrading these ventilators with an additional cost of Rs 2.91 lakh per unit without a proper tendering process, he said.
Meanwhile, state BJP spokesperson Prashant Vala lashed out at the Congress for making baseless allegations.
“If Dhanani has a government order stating that the government was paying Rs 2.91 lakh per ventilator, then he should make it public. Levelling such baseless allegations does not amount to anything,” he said.
BJP govt in Gujarat suppressing COVID data: Maha Congress
The BJP government in Gujarat is not conducting enough COVID-19 tests and is also suppressing related data, the Maharashtra Congress alleged on Tuesday.
The Congress’ charge came two days after the Gujarat High Court questioned the Vijay Rupani government’s decision to not allow private laboratories to conduct COVID-19 tests, saying whether this is meant to “artificially control” the data of number of coronavirus cases in the state.
Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that the situation in the other BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is “almost the same” and added these governments have surrendered to the novel coronavirus.
Hitting out at BJP leaders for their criticism of the Maharashtra government’s handling of the COVID-19 situation , Sawant asked them to first check the “failed Gujarat model” before talking about the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s performance.
“While Gujarat is not conducting enough tests, the COVID-19 data is also being suppressed in the BJP ruled states,” Sawant said in a statement.
“The Gujarat High Court lambasted the healthcare system and termed the hospitals worse than dungeons and compared it to a sinking ship Titanic.
“The situation is almost similar in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh where the governments have bowed down to coronavirus,” Sawant alleged.
“While responding on behalf of the government to the COVID-19 situation in Ahmedabad, the advocate general shared some shocking facts. He informed the court that more tests may lead to 70 percent of the population testing positive for COVID-19, thereby leading to fear psychosis in the public.
“If we consider the current population estimate of Ahmedabad as 78 lakh or based on the 2011 census, the city has a population of 55.7 lakh, Sawant said.
He said that given the situation in the BJP-ruled state, BJP leaders in Maharashtra have no moral right to speak on the situation in the state.
Sawant said the state government is working “scientifically and it is not engaged in activities like clapping and lighting lamps”.
Sawant alleged that BJP MP Narayan Rane’s demand for imposition of President’s rule in the state did not come all of sudden, but was a ploy of the BJP leadership at the Centre.
