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Siddaramaiah asks CM to release Covid white paper
Bengaluru Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday demanded that the BS Yediyurappa-led government release a white paper on its performance in containing and dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic
Bengaluru
Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday demanded that the BS Yediyurappa-led government release a white paper on its performance in containing and dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“@BJP4Karnataka government should release a White paper about their initiatives and performance in managing the pandemic instead of just framing new rules, regulations and restrictions to the public,” Siddaramaiah tweeted on Monday.
The statements come a day before the scheduled virtual meeting of the chief minister, opposition leader (Siddaramaiah) and other senior leaders with the Karnataka governor, Vajubai Vala, on Tuesday to finalise the guidelines for Bengaluru and other parts of the state, which is firmly under the tightening grip of a raging second wave of the pandemic.
Yediyurappa, who is currently undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Bengaluru after testing positive for Covid-19 for a second time since August, is expected to release a new set of guidelines for the state on Tuesday.
The Congress has cornered the government on various issues during the pandemic, especially related to providing financial assistance to the needy and inadequate healthcare infrastructure in the city and state.
“@BJP4Karnataka government ministers and BJP MLAs are openly flouting the rules of their own govt. @BSYBJP has no control over his ministers or MLAs. This has resulted in the complete chaos & confusion in the State,” Siddaramaiah said in a second post.
He added that the health crisis was worsening every day in the state.
Karnataka continues to report a surge and its capital city, Bengaluru, is among the worst affected regions in the country.
The active case count in Bengaluru stands at 103,178 while the state has 142,084 active cases at the moment.
Bengaluru reported 97 fatalities in the 24 hours on Sunday that took the death toll across the state in a single day to 146, according to the daily bulletin of the state health department.
Siddaramaiah said there were no hospital beds in government hospitals and there was no stock of oxygen cylinders.
“There are no beds for coronavirus patients at government hospitals, (and) people cannot afford private hospitals, there is no oxygen stock and there is a shortage of life saving Remdesivir drug,” Siddaramaiah said.
He alleged that the pandemic was used for corruption by the government.
Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar said the government should earmark ₹30,000 crore for the health sector, stop all other activities and focus its resources on resolving the crisis on hand.
