Even the most ardent supporters of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party have been left shell-shocked by the way the Kejriwal administration has absolutely bungled its way through the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Now, the Delhi High Court has come down heavily on the Kejriwal government over its handling of the pandemic as the honourable court stated if the Delhi government is unable to manage, it will ask the Central government to step in and handle the rapidly spreading virus in the country’s capital.
At a time when the Arvind Kejriwal’s PR blitzkrieg across the country shows no sign of slowing down, the Delhi High court has pulled up the Delhi government over its handing of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. A seemingly angry Court told the Aam Aadmi Party government that it will ask the Centre to take over ‘if you cannot manage it’.
The High Court said, “Set your house in order. If you cannot manage it, we will ask the central government to takeover.” In a worrying observation, the Court observed that the government authorities appeared completely unaware about the ground realities and are just issuing ‘unreasonable orders’
In order to curb the black marketing of critical medicines, the Court said, “We direct the Delhi government to take record from all pharmacies on supply of Remdesivir, Dexamethasone and Fabiflu and other drugs and conduct random audit to find out if there has been any black marketing.”
It added, “It is clear to us that Delhi government has to pull up its socks with respect to distribution of not only liquid oxygen but also oxygen cylinders. In case the refiller does not provide the data to the GNCTD portal, strict action would be taken against them by the GNCTD and us.”
According to an RTI, the Delhi government built no new hospitals in Delhi between 2015 and 2019 with only 189 of the promised 1,000 Mohalla Clinics being opened in the same period. In fact, the Delhi government failed to set up oxygen plants on time. The Central government asked state governments all over the country to set up oxygen plants during the first wave in 2020. Last week, the Union government informed the Delhi High Court that in December 2020, funds were sanctioned from the PM Cares fund for the local government to set up eight oxygen plants in Delhi. Up until last week, the government had set up only one.
Read More: Second wave of COVID-19 in Delhi NCR: The many hits and misses of the Kejriwal government
Alarmingly, the Delhi Chief Minister’s Relief Fund has collected 35 crore rupees since the pandemic began, but according to an RTI, ‘NIL’ meaning none of it has been utilised for Covid.
It seems that the Kejriwal government was busy with its PR blitzkrieg and its incessant ads which continue to appear on major news channels. Kejriwal would be well advised to focus on containing the virus rather than spending crores on advertisement as the former would go a long way in helping him win Delhi again in 2025.
