State, Centre govt failed in containing COVID-19, says Siddu

Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that the BJP government in both centre and state have failed in containing the coronavirus spread.

Speaking at a press meet former Chief Minister said, “Central and state government have clearly failed in controlling COVID-19 though they had enough time for preparations. The first coronavirus case was reported in Kerala on January 30. Lockdown was imposed on March 24.”

“Karnataka government might have been able to stop COVID-19 properly. However, both the state and central government are playing politics over the issue and blaming Tablighi Jamaat for the spread, which is a political strategy painted by the RSS,” Siddaramaiah added.

He further questioned, “Who gave the licence to Tablighi’s international convention? Who gave them permission in Delhi? They didn’t control it. Central government is directly responsible for the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in India.”

The government imposed the lockdown without any preparation, as the result migrant workers across the country faced many problems.

“Now, the government is collecting ticket fare and looting migrant workers. They don’t have jobs or food, they don’t have money, and they earn every day to survive. How will they pay for the tickets? Why the government is not arranging for free trains?” the Congress leader said.

Further speaking about the PM CARES fund he said that so far around Rs 35,000 crore have been credited to the fund, Rs 3,000 crore of which was credited from Karnataka alone. “Why are they not using that money?” he asked.

“We asked the Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to call an all-party meeting. We gave many suggestions, which this government did not consider. We also took a delegation and gave a memorandum about farmers, daily wage workers, roadside vendors, barbers, problems faced by the unorganized sector. But this government didn’t consider any of it,” he said.