Haryana agriculture minister JP Dalal tests positive for Covid-19 hours before assembly session begins
Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is admitted to a private hospital in Gurgaon, is stated to be stable; his OSD Bhupeshwar Dayal tweeted that he has also tested positive
Chandigarh: Haryana agriculture minister JP Dalal tested positive for Covid-19, making him the eighth legislator of the ruling BJP in the state to contract the coronavirus infection.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Dalal said that he had got himself tested three days ago and the report was negative. However, he got another test done later, in which he tested positive
The minister said that he has isolated himself at home and appealed to all those who had come in his contact to get themselves examined.
The announcement came hours before the monsoon session of the Haryana assembly gets underway in Chandigarh.
KHATTAR’S CONDITION STABLE
On Monday, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Speaker Gian Chand Gupta were also found to be infected with the virus.
Khattar is admitted to Gurgaon’s Medanta hospital, and is in a stable condition.
Bhupeshwar Dayal, the officer on special duty with the Haryana chief minister, tweeted that he has also tested positive for Covid-19.
Karnal BJP MP Sanjay Bhatia and the party MLA from Gharaunda Harvinder Kalyan have also tweeted that they had tested positive for coronavirus.
Kalyan too had got himself tested three days ago and the report was negative. But after developing symptoms, he got himself tested again and the report returned positive on Sunday evening.
Besides Bhatia, the BJP MPs from the state who were infected with Covid-19 earlier are Brijendra Singh and Nayab Singh Saini, representing Hisar and Kurukshetra, respectively.
Haryana transport minister Mool Chand Sharma tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, the eve of the assembly’s monsoon session in Chandigarh.
BJP MLAs Lakshman Napa, Ram Kumar Kashyap and Aseem Goel have also tested positive as have six assembly staffers, officials said.
Earlier, the Speaker had made it mandatory for anyone entering the assembly complex for the monsoon session to show a Covid-19 negative certificate, which should not be older than three days. This was done on health minister Anil Vij’s suggestion.
SOCIAL DISTANCING IN HOUSE
The seating arrangement in the House has also been changed to ensure social distancing, officials said.
The Haryana assembly has a strength of 90 members. One seat fell vacant after the death of opposition Congress MLA Shri Krishan Hooda in April.
The state has seen nearly 57,000 Covid-19 cases and more than 600 fatalities so far.