BJP government in Tripura has failed in Covid control, say CPI-M, Congress

Agartala, Sep. 19 (IANS): Opposition CPI-M and Congress on Saturday strongly criticised the BJP government in Tripura for its “total failure in Covid-19 management putting the state in a worst situation in the northeastern region”.

The Congress has called for a 12-hour strike in Tripura on Monday to protest the governmenta¿s negligence to check the deaths due to the coronavirus and spread of the infectious disease.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, however, rejected the opposition’s accusation and blamed them for not following the government’s Covid norms.

Communist Party of India-Marxist Tripura state secretary Gautam Das said that Tripura is the only state in India where there is no full-fledged health minister and the Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has been holding as many as 28 departments, including Health and Family Welfare Department.

“Frustrated over the government’s mismanagement, Additional Chief Secretary in-charge of Health and Family Welfare Department Sanjay Kumar Rakesh, Health Director Radha Debbarma and many other senior officials have either applied for voluntary retirement or have already left their jobs. Despite huge shortages of doctors and health staff, the BJP government did not recruit any health workers including nurses during the past two-and-a-half years,” Das told the media.

Das, who is also the member of the CPI-M central committee, said that the state government did not even share the correct and updated Covid information with the High Court, which has recently, took a suo-moto case and raised 13 points to the government.

“After thousands of people returned to Tripura from different parts of the country in May and June, Tripura government tested their sample 5:1 ratio – one sample tested out of five returnees — causing huge spread of the dreaded virus. With 1.12 per cent fatality, Tripura is in the worst position among the 8 northeastern states in Covid-19 death ratio while its recovery rate of 67.50 per cent also very low,” the Left leader said.

Former Tripura state Congress chief and ex-minister Birajit Sinha alleged that the BJP government had not only totally failed in Covid management but the Chief Minister and the ruling party leaders were arrogant.

Congress leader Tapas Dey said that Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb himself attended religious, personal, governmental and party programmes violating the social distancing norms and other government guidelines.

BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee said that the people rejected Left parties in Tripura in 2018 assembly polls and both the CPI-M and the Congress made false charges. “After the BJP government came to power, many new departments were set up in Tripura hospitals and many specialists were recruited on numerous diseases. When lakhs of people are dying due to Covid-19 in China and other developed countries, these two parties remain silent,” he told the media.

Bhattacharjee said putting their lives at risk, BJP’s Lok Sabha member Pratima Bhowmik and many of the party functionaries were providing services to needy people and many BJP workers had died after owing to coronavirus.