Maharashtra Congress leader Dr Ashish Deshmukh, known for speaking out his mind, has criticised the Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government by writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asking to impose a state of emergency in the state, for at least two months.
Taking to Twitter, the former MLA shared the letter and remarked, “Wrote a letter to The Hon’ble Prime Minister for Proclamation of Health as well as Financial Emergency looking to pandemic arisen out of COVID-19 disease in the State of Maharashtra as per Article 360 of Constitution of India at least for two months.”
Wrote a letter to The Hon'ble Prime Minister for Proclamation of Health as well as Financial Emergency looking to pandemic arisen out of COVID-19 disease in State of Maharashtra as per Article 360 of Constitution of India at least for two months.#PMOIndia #COVID19 @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/0ULCzEGW7p
— Dr. Ashishrao R. Deshmukh Office (@AshishRDoffice) April 20, 2021
“It is now over a year since the State of Maharashtra, has been grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. The figures of the Corona Patients as compare to the rest of our country, are very disturbing and in Maharashtra, it is creating chaos. The total number of cases in Maharashtra is 3.84 million and the deaths are 60,473. The second surge if proving more fatal to everything in Maharashtra including the Health and Administrative system of the State Government,” Deshmukh started the letter by saying.
Asking the central government to intervene citing the poor financial condition of Maharashtra and surge in cases, the Congress leader implored the PM, “Overall situation in Maharashtra is that the State is suffering from very poor financial condition and this has resulted into the precarious situation Health System amounting to deaths of thousands. It is the basic duty of State Government to provide health care facilities to its citizens. Therefore this is right time for Union to intervene to stop further deterioration of the situation.”
“I am deeply saddened by the present chaos created because of COVID-19 pandemic and I would like to request that this is high time when the Government of India should proclaim Health Emergency followed by Financial Emergency as given under Article 360 of Constitution of India in the State of Maharashtra with immediate effect at least to two months, so as to get the State to normalcy,” Deshmukh further said in his letter.
After his bombshell of a letter, the Congress leader continued his outrage by issuing statements to the media. Deshmukh claimed that MVA had the time to build jumbo Covid hospitals in Nagpur but no effort was made to construct one.
“People are dying in Nagpur due to lack of beds, oxygen and Remdisivir injections. The government had 14 months since the beginning of last year to build a jumbo Covid hospital, as announced last year. But no effort was made in that respect,” Deshmukh was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
Just like the first wave, Maharashtra has been the hotspot of the second wave of the deadly virus as well. More than 60,000 have died of the pandemic in Maharashtra alone while the total cases are nearing the 4 million mark. Uddhav Thackeray and his MVA government seem to have once again failed to deliver healthcare facilities to its population. Instead of owning its mistakes, the tri-party alliance has now allegedly resorted to playing the blame game by fixing its responsibility on the centre.