Bandi Sanjay Kumar says telangana government must include Covid treatment under Arogyasri or Ayushman Bharat

Hyderabad: BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar reiterated his party's demand asking Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, to release a whitepaper on the funds released by the Centre to the State government to fight Covid-19.

Tension prevailed for a while at Koti centre when the BJP leaders led by the Karimnagar MP staged a protest before the Director of Health Services to press for their demand to include treatment of Covid under Arogyasri Health Scheme (AHS).

Before getting arrested and shifted to the Afzalgunj police station, addressing the media the BJP chief said, " The growing cases of coronavirus and higher mortality rates shows the inefficiency of the State government in handling the crisis."

He said that poor people in the State infected with the deadly virus are not in a position to meet the treatment charges announced by the State government.

He demanded that the State government should either include the treatment under AHS or implement the Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme (ABHS), a central-sponsored annual health insurance scheme under which it had included the Covid treatment. Or else, " The State government should extend the free treatment of Covid to all the poor and needy in the State," he demanded.

Calling the TRS chief as a quarantine chief minister who confined himself to Pragati Bhavan and farmhouse, he demanded the State government to increase Covid tests in Telangana. Besides that, he demanded for immediate filling of all the vacancies of doctors and paramedical staff in the government hospitals along with taking steps for the immediate functioning of the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS).

Dismissing the claims of TRS ministers that they were the first to identify the Covid cases and alerted the Centre is like claiming that they were the first to find the earth and sky, the BJP State chief said that the State government led to the increase of the Covid cases in Telangana.

Taking a dig at the Health Minister Eatala Rajender, he asked that where are the 10 lakh PPE kits and an equal number of masks that the minister claims to have with the State government? They are not meant to be kept under lock and key, but to distribute to the needy, he said.

Kumar also said that the statements of TRS ministers against BJP president JP Nadda and his party were meant to divert people's attention, instead of responding to the questions raised by the Chief of the saffron party during his speech at Jana Samvad virtual rally with the party leaders and cadre from Telangana.