Delhi govt’s decisions on Covid-19 were legally untenable: Opposition

Opposition parties backed lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal’s decision to overrule Delhi government’s order on reservation of hospital beds for Delhiites and no testing of asymptomatic contacts of Covid-19 patients.

The opposition parties on Monday welcomed lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal’s decision to overrule the state government’s order reserving hospital beds in the national capital exclusively for Delhi residents and stopping the testing of asymptomatic contacts of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients.

New Delhi: Delhi BJP President Adesh Kumar Gupta holds a placard along with party MLAs during a protest against the Delhi government over Covid-19 situation in the national capital on Sunday. (PTI File Photo)

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress said the government’s order was “legally untenable”. They said it was just a diversionary tactic by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to shift focus from his government’s alleged failure to augment healthcare infrastructure. The Aam Aadmi Party hit back, accusing the BJP of playing dirty politics and putting pressure on the L-G to pass such an order.

Welcoming the L-G’s decision, BJP MP from New Delhi Meenakshi Lekhi said, “India is a union of states. The Delhi government’s order was legally untenable, as it was in violation of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution. How can any state deny a person from another state access to medical care?”

The Congress, which ran the city government for 15 years before AAP wrested power from it in 2014, said the government reserved the beds knowing fully well that the decision had no firm legal footing.

Former Delhi MP Ajay Maken said, “The Delhi high court in 2018 had ruled against the government’s decision to reserve a certain number of beds in GTB hospital for Delhi residents only. Kejriwal can’t be oblivious to it. This was just an attempt to divert people’s attention from his government’s failure to augment the medical facility.”

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said the decision to stop testing of asymptomatic contacts of Covid-19 patients was against the Centre’s guidelines. “Testing is crucial right now to prevent the spread of the disease. But this government is arbitrarily taking decisions and putting people’s lives at risk,” he said.

Lekhi came down heavily on AAP on the issue of discrepancy in data about hospital beds, according to the Delhi Corona app, launched by the Delhi government itself. She said the five Ts (testing, tracing, treatment, teamwork and tracking) that Kejriwal said were essential for fighting Covid-19 are missing today.

“Is this the time to mislead people? These are human lives; they are not some lab rats or insects on which you can conduct experiments,” the national BJP spokesperson said.

The Delhi government had recently ordered that 20% of the total bed strength in private hospitals be reserved for Covid-19 patients.