In a sudden development, Principal Secretary ( Home ) Bhupinder Singh Bhalla and Vikram Dev Dutt, the Principal Secretary (Health ) of Delhi Government have gone on leave amid war on corona testing between Ministry of Home Affairs and the Delhi Government.
According to sources in Delhi administration, both the officials were under pressure of the Centre to not to escalate Corona testing in the National Capital while Health Minister Satyendra Jain had already spoken about pressure tactics by the Union government by writing a letter to secretary, Union Home Minister, Ajay Bhalla.
Interestingly, at times when the MHA has clarified that the allegations of putting pressure on Delhi government officials on Corona testing were baseless, an official order of August 26,2020 with The Pioneer stated that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal desired that testing may be scaled up in terms of numbers from the current levels and may be doubled.
It is pertinent to mention here that during the review meeting which was held on above mentioned day, both top officials Principal Secretary ( Home ) and secretary ( Health ) were present.
Sources in Delhi government said amid this situation, the State ( Health) Department of Delhi government is fully prepared for increasing testing.
“More testing is the strategy to tackle corona spread. The administration is prepared as discussed and guided by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on August 26 during the review meeting,” said a senior government official.
Further, as per the orders signed by Vikram Dev Dutt, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Delhi government, stated further guidance may kindly be sought from the expert committee/ MHA on Corona testing.
“In light of the current Covid -19 , situation and trajectory of cases in Delhi whether scaling up of testing number is to be done and if so, to what extent,” quoted the order.
It further stated: since the testing strategy of Delhi government has always been congruent with National Testing Strategy, the direction would be essential in ensuring that such congruence is ensured on a continuous basis. “Submitted for kind info and further orders, the above has been communicated separately to MHA and Dr V K Paul , Member, NITI Ayog,” quoted as mentioned in orders.
Meanwhile, Delhi reported 20 deaths in past 24 hours with fresh 1808 corona positive cases.