BJP demands resignation of Telangana Health Minister for 'lowest COVID-19 tests'

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], May 19 (ANI): The BJP has demanded the resignation of Telangana State Health Minister Etela Rajender, stating that he has endangered the entire population by intentionally conducting the lowest number of tests than any other state in the country, with the proportionate population.
A statement issued by K.Krishna Saagar Rao, Chief Spokesperson BJP Telangana read, "BJP demands the resignation of Telangana State Health Minister Etela Rajender for endangering the entire population of Telangana by intentionally conducting the lowest number of tests than any other state in India, with proportionate population."
"The health minister has not only underperformed during this massive health crisis but also willfully misled the people of the state, opposition and media by claiming the state was testing as per ICMR guidelines. His department was also not reporting the test data regularly as mandated by ICMR in the daily bulletins since many weeks," read the statement.
It said that the BJP stands vindicated on the allegations it has been making with substantive data since weeks, that TRS government under Chief Minister KCR leadership has been manipulating COVID19 infection rate in the state since the beginning and more so after the second week of April. One cannot understand the intention of the state government behind this brazen deviation in reference to public health standard protocols.
It is now very clear to the entire nation that impressively less corona case numbers and lowest number of deaths being reported by Telangana state government is a complete farce and a dangerous deviation from ethical governance standards to paint an illusionary rosy picture in Telangana State in comparison to other states in the country.
As of May 15, Telangana State Government has only conducted 22,842 tests, while small states like Chhattisgarh and Assam has conducted disproportionately more tests, the statement said.
"Central Health Ministry data clearly establishes, while Andhra Pradesh conducts 9,000 tests per day on average, Telangana's total is just around 200 per day. While the all-India testing average was 1,025 per million population, the figure for Telangana is only 546. In the border states with almost similar size of population, Tamil Nadu has tested over 3,00,000 and Andhra Pradesh has tested over 1,75,000 cases," the statement said.
BJP considers this dangerous game of intentionally concealing the COVID19 infection rate and death rate through lowest level of testing, can lead to rapid community spread of this pandemic and can subsequently endanger vast population, both in the state of Telangana and the rest of the country.
BJP demands the resignation of the state Health Minister Etela Rajender for having misled the people of the state, by consistently lying in regular press conferences that the state is following ICMR guidelines and Testing protocols.
"BJP demands KCR to explain the people of Telangana State, why his government is endangering the state population with irresponsible handling of public health system, especially during such a dangerous global health crisis," it added. (ANI)