Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Thursday wrote to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla mentioning pressure from the Centre on the Delhi Government officials to not increase corona testing.
Reacting on Jain’s letter to Union Home Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs’ spokesperson said allegations are false and baseless.
In his letter to Bhalla, Jain has said the Delhi Government wants to double corona testing, however, the Union Home Ministry is putting pressure on the Delhi Government officials not to do so.
“I am shocked to learn that the Centre is pressuring our officials on corona testing. We all have seen, with the help of Centre we succeeded in defeating corona however now when the Delhi Government wants to increase testing, the Centre is not allowing our officers to do so,” Jain wrote in his letter to the Union Home Secretary, in the absence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is admitted in AIIMS for post Covid care treatment.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday chaired a meeting with Delhi Health Department officials in a view of rising corona cases. Aiming for zero corona deaths in the national Capital, Kejriwal has directed officers to double tests.
Also, Jain mentioned that testing is necessary to contain the corona virus. “More testing is the only way to combat corona and this model is being acknowledged all over the world. If the Delhi Government wants to test 40 thousands which were 20 thousand earlier, why the Centre is not allowing us to do so,” Jain said.
Citing the letter, Union Home Secretary, spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs, spokesperson tweeted, “The allegation raised in the letter of the Health Minister of Delhi Govt dated August 27, 2020, which is addressed to Union Home Secretary, to the effect that MHA is putting pressure on Delhi Govt officers not to increase testing in Delhi is false and baseless.
“In this context, it may be recalled that it was after the intervention of the Union Home Minister that the daily tests in Delhi, which were averaging around 4,000 per day till mid June, 2020, have gone up to around 18-20,000 per day in a calibrated manner.”
“The marked improvement in the Covid-19 situation in Delhi has been possible due to this enhanced testing and other containment measures.”
“The letter of the Delhi Health Minister has annexed a note of the officers of the Delhi Govt. It may be noted that this note has made no mention whatsoever of any instruction of MHA on the matter of increase in testing in Delhi.”
“The note has only proposed that the views of an Expert Committee headed by Dr VK Paul may be taken on the proposed enhancement in testing in Delhi, for technical guidance on various issues such as mix of RT-PCR & Rapid Antigen, categories of geographical areas & demographics etc, As such, any allegation that MHA is putting pressure on Delhi Govt not to increase testing in Delhi is absolutely without any basis,” the MHA spokesperson said.