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IGPTS appeals to Telangana Government to efficiently tackle COVID-19 in state

 July 6, 2020

INDIA GREENS PARTY Telangana

ఇండియా గ్రీన్స్ పార్టీ తెలంగాణ

(Registered with the Election Commission of India under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Registration Number: 56/476/2018-19/PPS-I, effective from 18/07/2019.)

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Email: indiagreensparty@gmail.com Website: www.indiagreensparty.org

06 July 2020

Press Statement

IGPTS appeals to Telangana Government to efficiently tackle COVID-19 in state

Hyderabad, 6 July 2020: The Telangana state unit of the India Greens Party Telangana (IGPTS) has appealed to the state government to take a note of the following points, on behalf of the citizens of the state, concerning the adverse state of COVID-19: 

  1. Low covid-19 testing rate in the state
  2. Data transparency
  3. Private hospital fees
  4. Clarity on education policy for online teaching

The IGPTS Ad-hoc Committee in a press statement issued here said that Telangana, with approximately 3.5-crore citizens, has conducted just over 2000 COVID tests per million people which is a still low number if compared with states with the comparable population; for example, Kerala has over 7000 COVID tests per million people. 

The committee agrees with the Telangana High Court, as it came down heavily on the government over its handling of the pandemic. The Government should be more transparent in publishing detailed information regarding the covid-19 situation in the state. 

Telangana is bordered by Karnataka (21549 cases at 10,479 COVID tests per million),  Chhattisgarh (3161 cases at 6259 COVID tests per million), Maharashtra( 200000 cases at 8884 COVID tests per million), Andhra Pradesh (17,699 cases at 19000 COVID tests per million) and Tamil Nadu (107000 cases at 17000 COVID tests per million). 

Telangana has a comparable culture, population density and is home to the 4th largest metropolitan Indian city, Hyderabad. 

We suspect the number of cases is more than what is currently shown, due to the lack of proper testing. The committee suggests that the Telangana government should do the rapid diagnostic testing strategy taken up by our neighboring states.

According to the government website, all the testing centers are located in the state capital. This is another reason why we suspect the tests are not adequate. The committee suggests the government to set-up testing centers at the district level.

The committee commends the efforts of the Telangana Government for putting a price cap on the COVID-19 tests at private testing centres. However, we have ground reports and also published news articles that state that the private laboratories are not complying with the government orders and are charging the patients more than the stipulated amount, citing the scarcity of resources during this time. 

The committee requests the government to take adequate measures to enforce the orders much more effectively in these cases.

In the wake of the pandemic, the education system in the state seems to be in a turmoil. We have come across instances where some of the private schools and educational institutions continue to charge the existing fees. 

The committee is of the opinion that it is unfair to collect the same fees given the current circumstances. The committee urges the government to draft an education policy as requested by  the Telangana High Court. Furthermore there have been news articles demanding that the government ban online classes for students below class V akin to the decision taken by the Karnataka government. The committee stands in solidarity with the parents and the activists on this issue and suggests that the government takes due cognisance of this while drafting the state’s new education policy. It is to be noted that students from remote areas do not have access to the technology or internet to avail the online education services being offered by the public and private institutions, hence the committee suggests that the government provides sufficient infrastructure to the underprivileged students.

-Press Statement issued by Rahul Gupta Kodarapu, national
secretary and member of the IGP Telangana Ad-hoc Committee.

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