Hyderabad, May 18, 2021: Former Minister & ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has accused Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao of making false promises to mislead the people and shield his government’s failures in handling the Covid-19 situation in the State.
“Whenever the High Court pulls up the State Government for its failures in dealing with the Covid-19 situation, CM KCR holds a ‘review meeting’ and issues a long statement based on fake claims and false promises. On Monday, the High Court rapped the State Government for not taking adequate measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. It also exposed that there was a huge difference between the claims being made by the officials and the ground reality. However, just to dilute the impact of the High Court’s remarks, CM KCR has sent a long statement in the evening making fake promises and claims,” Shabbir Ali said in a media statement on Tuesday.
Shabbir Ali said that the entire country, including Telangana, has been facing the second wave of Covid-19 for over a month. He said that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and CM KCR in Telangana have failed to prepare in advance for the second wave to minimise its impact. Health infrastructure was not improved and no arrangements were made to meet the demand for oxygen, hospital beds, medicines, manpower and other requirements. Even today both Modi Govt and KCR Govt are depending on ad-hoc arrangements. They are apparently hoping that the second wave of Covid would fade away on its own, he said.
The Congress leader said that CM KCR had promised to set up 48 oxygen generation plants in government hospitals to produce 324 MT of oxygen to prevent a shortage in the future. “What prevented CM KCR from doing this in the last one year? Instead of making generic statements, CM KCR should give specifics of funds required for those oxygen plants and the deadline by which they would be completed,” he demanded.
Shabbir Ali said that the State Government’s decision to set up new medical colleges in Sangareddy, Jagtial, Kothagudem, Wanaparthy, Mancherial and Mahabubabad was a long pending demand and CM KCR should have announced it long back. But he announced it now to dilute the harsh remarks of the High Court on the poor performance of the State Government, he said.
The Congress leader advised CM KCR to avoid taking superficial measures to deal with the Covid pandemic. “In his last ‘review meeting’, CM KCR has announced the recruitment of 50,000 medical professionals, including doctors. A notification was also issued the next day by the Medical & Health Department. However, the notification was full of errors with no clarity on the exact pay package, other incentives, place of recruitment and also the duration. Why would any doctor join the government services for a period of two-three months for a nominal payment, when he/she could get a good package in any private hospital? The State Government needs to increase the offer and make it more attractive besides giving them assurances of employment on a long term basis,” he said.
Shabbir Ali said that CM KCR must learn to face the reality if he was sincere towards protecting people’s lives. He said statements based on ‘fake promises and false claims’ might dilute criticism for a short time, but they could cause huge harm to the general public in the longer run.