The national president of the TDP, N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Saturday blamed the “inefficiency” of the YSRCP government for the deaths of six COVID-19 patients in Kurnool because the oxygen supply was not guaranteed on time.
In a statement, Mr. Naidu asked how many people would lose their lives due to the “failure of Prime Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s government”.
“Without wasting time, the government should give top priority to solving the oxygen starvation in the state,” he said.
“All private hospitals equipped with the necessary facilities should be converted into COVID treatment centers and the number of oxygen beds increased in the event of an emergency. The virus infected patients should receive better medical care, ”he said.
Mr Naidu said the government did not provide correct information about the availability of oxygen while patients lost their lives due to a lack of timely oxygen supply.
He said the government should take war-related measures to ensure an adequate supply of medical oxygen.
‘Postpone Exams’
Earlier, at a May Day meeting of the TNTUC and other party leaders, Mr. Naidu called for the government to postpone SSC and mid-term exams to prevent a health threat to students, their parents, and teachers and non-teachers.
He said it was unfair to ask students to show up for their exams amid fears of a pandemic. The government had announced that the younger lot would have to wait for vaccination due to insufficient stocks. In the circumstances, there was little point in asking students to come out of their homes and travel all the way to exam centers and take their tests, he argued.
The TDP chief claimed that the government’s “inefficient and incoherent policies” had avoided the welfare of both organized and unorganized workers and employees in the sector. Welfare programs put in place by the TDP, such as Anna Canteens and Chandranna Beema, which proved to be of great help to the unorganized workers, have been scrapped by the YSRCP government, he said.
Mr Naidu supported the Secretariat staff’s request to work from home, pointing out that over 10 staff had died due to COVID-19.