Tag: adesh kumar gupta

Delhi: Political Blame Game Starts Over Corona App as Cases Surge, Deaths Cross 600

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain has, meanwhile, said testing at the Centre-run RML Hospital, has been sub-par.

New Delhi: With Delhi witnessing a record 1,513 new patients of COVID-19 on Wednesday and with the total count crossing the 23,000 mark – with 606 deaths providing a glimpse of what lies ahead – a political blame game has started.

While the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has begun attacking the Centre for “wrong results” of testing at the Centre-run Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Congress and BJP leaders have begun attacking the Arvind Kejriwal government of not doing things in right earnest and for committing “fraud” on the people by launching the ‘Delhi Corona’ app.

On Thursday, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, while addressing a joint press conference with deputy CM Manish Sisodia, picked on the RML Hospital to highlight how the BJP-led Centre was not serious about its job.

Jain insisted that “70% of people are dying within 24 hours of reaching the RML hospital as their test reports come in 5-7 days.” Terming this “absolutely wrong”, he said, “Reports should come within 24 hours.”

He also said there was a 45% error in positive results of COVID-19 tests done at the hospital and that he has “asked the Union health minister to fix this casual approach.” On Wednesday, AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha had also levelled similar allegations.

With the BJP and Congress attacking AAP for the rising number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Delhi, the party appears to have decided to hit back.

Also read: Delhi Unveils App for Hospital Bed, Ventilator Status Updates

In view of the rising number of cases, Jain also said that an order had been issued to reserve 20% beds in 61 private hospitals.

Sisodia said while the dedicated COVID-19 facilities “were already there,” three private hospitals have been added to the list. He said if private hospitals would face any issue in reserving 20% of the beds, then they could also be fully converted into dedicated coronavirus hospitals.

App’s teething troubles

Meanwhile, both the Congress and BJP have picked on the complaints on a mismatch between availability of beds in hospitals and data being provided by the recently-launched Delhi Corona app to state that the government is not serious about it.

On Thursday, Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar tweeted that the app was not serving any purpose.

A day earlier, he had stated that while the app had said 80 beds were free at the Max Hospital Patparganj, when he went there with a patient on Tuesday night, all the beds were full. “Mr. Kejriwal is telling lies and hiding the true picture,” he had then alleged.

Newly-appointed Delhi BJP president Adesh Kumar Gupta also alleged that the government was “continuously lying” about the situation and had actually “increased the pain” by lying about death, testing and availability of beds in hospitals.

All these leaders referred to a number of tweets reportedly on difficulties people faced upon reaching hospitals with COVID-19 positive people.

In one such tweet a man tagged Union health minister Harsh Vardhan while speaking about how no bed was available in Apollo or Gangaram Hospital despite the app stating so.

Another person tagged Manish Sisodia saying that while the app showed availability of 50 beds in Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, when he called there to get his relative admitted, they denied having any vacant beds.

Another Twitter user, Vikas Pandey, also posted about a similar experience.

“My brother has severe COVID symptoms. We contacted Max, Apollo and Gangaram — all three said no beds. But your website shows they have beds. Please look into this – @ArvindKejriwal@AnkitLal @msisodia what’s going on?” he wrote.

Meanwhile, some newspaper reports also cited how when they checked with the hospital authorities on availability of beds, their spokespersons said there weren’t any despite the app showing a number of beds as ‘vacant’.

A Delhi government spokesperson responded to these reports by saying the app would ultimately prove to be a very “useful tool”. He said it was a “new initiative” and so there were bound to be teething issues which would be resolved soon.

Delhi BJP Replaces Manoj Tiwari With Former North MCD Mayor as Unit President

Adesh Gupta’s appointment is also being seen as an attempt by BJP to woo back the Vaish community, which had drifted towards the Kejriwal-led AAP.

New Delhi: An old-time activist of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Adesh Kumar Gupta, on Monday replaced Bhojpuri singer-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari as the Delhi BJP president.

Tiwari, who was given the important post in 2016 despite not having muchof political experience, had been expected to go after the party performed miserably in the Assembly election held earlier this year.

Fifty-two-year-old Gupta, who rose up the ranks of the party, began his career as a student activist with ABVP in 1986, and served in various posts within BJP, including as Mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation. At present, he is a member of the Standing Committee of North MCD and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board. His father was also a Delhi BJP district president.

By making Gupta, who belongs to the Vaish community, its president in Delhi the BJP has ostensibly attempted to reach out to the community which appears to have gradually swayed towards the Aam Aadmi Party. Arvind Kejriwal also belongs to the Vaish community.

BJP has earlier had several Delhi presidents from the community including Mange Ram Garg, Harshvardhan, Vijay Goel and Vijender Gupta.

Tiwari’s four-year tenure saw the BJP regaining the three municipal corporations in the elections held in 2017. And though the party again secured all the seven seats in the Lok Sabha elections held last year, performing a repeat of 2014 when a Modi wave had given it a clean sweep for the first time, it failed to dislodge the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party in the Assembly polls held in February this year.

Though it was expected that Tiwari, being a known figure, would be able to woo the Poorvanchali voters, his performance in galvanising the party was nothing to write home about. In fact, AAP came back with another resounding victory, winning 62 seats in the 70-member House with the BJP finishing a distant second with just eight seats.

File image of Manoj Tiwari. Photo: Facebook/Manoj Tiwari ‘Mridul’

Though soon after the polls, 49-year-old Tiwari had offered to step down, the party had made him wait as it reportedly looked for a replacement.

Then riots in North East Delhi – which Tiwari represents as a Lok Sabha MP – and spread of COVID-19 is learnt to have delayed the decision on the change of guard. In between, Tiwari found himself in the midst of several controversies. He was seen playing cricket in neighbouring Haryana, recently, during the lockdown.

The BJP termed the change of guard a routine move. Gupta was quoted by NDTV as saying: “I can only say that I will fulfil my responsibility with honesty and dedication.”