Andhra Pradesh Ministers should pull up their socks

Life will not be the same again after the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said and added that there would be "pre-corona and post-corona" for times to come. This is a very highly loaded statement which gives ample indication of what the economic situation of the country is likely to be. Once the corona threat is over, the country is going to face a major challenge to see that its economy bounces back. This is exactly what the Prime Minister appears to have hinted at during the video conference with all party leaders. Certainly, it would take another two months or so before one can think of taking measures to pull the economy out of lockdown condition. This new deadly virus has proved that it is certainly a novel one and has proved all our beliefs and knowledge about the characteristics of a virus wrong.

Initially, everyone thought it would not survive in India as the temperatures are high, but it defied that rule. Some leaders felt Paracetamol was the remedy but that also proved to be wrong. Apart from the Markaz issue, which resulted in escalation of cases beyond one's expectations, the initial 'take it easy' policy of most of the State governments is also responsible for the spurt in cases. Where the Chief Ministers got into action after initial slip, things are in a better situation. Telangana is one among such States. The government created good number of bed strength for isolation wards and converted Gandhi Hospital and Gachibowli Stadium into exclusive corona hospitals and ensured that all doctors, para medical staff and sanitation employees put in best of their efforts with absolute dedication. It goes to the credit of the government that it has created an exclusive hospital in 15 days' time with 1,500 bed capacity.

The Chief Minister and Health Minister have been doing a very good job by interacting with officials and also with media giving all possible details though there are pessimists particularly on social media who feel that the government is hiding information. This kind of transparency however is not seen in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The government presented non serious attitude in the initial days and though now it has got into action, still it appears to believe there is no need for lockdown of political activity. Even when the issue of allocation of land to poor in the villages under capital region is in High Court, it sent officials to hold sort of public hearing in those villages on Wednesday. This resulted in giving a go by to social distancing. It would have been appreciated if it had diverted all those officials for prevention of spread of coronavirus. The Ministers continue to criticise the Opposition and political rivalry or hatred is clearly visible in their statements. At a time when there is "Social Emergency," in the country, government should have put everything under lockdown and moved ahead with single point agenda, 'fight corona'.

At least now it should realise, the fight is going to be long. It is a long war and nothing else should matter for them now except to see that people are safe. This has been a very big causality in AP. Hopefully, the executive will display more commitment, more maturity and act in a more responsible manner. While infrastructural facilities like testing kits, masks, personal protection equipment are necessary, what is more important is like in Telangana all human resources required to fight the menace should be taken proper care and their work and dedication should be recognised. The leaders should give less importance to photo option like distributing food packets and be practical. We have seen how food prepared by TTD for distribution was wasted. It prepared 50,000 packets, for what no one knows. Instead one should focus on the life of Anganwadi workers and Asha workers who tread the difficult terrain in tribal areas, gather data, come back and report to the government. Their services are yeomen but so far not a word has been said about them nor has any special incentive been announced. How they go, what they eat, seems to be nobody's concern. Focus on such issues would get the government good name. The Ministers in AP should utilise their energies in that direction. Politics can wait not corona.