It seems the Delhi government is hell-bent on opposing any and every step the central government takes or advises to the state. The latest tussle between the Delhi and the central governments happened over the quarantine and isolation guidelines.
The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi Government has registered its protest over the new guidelines issued by Amit Shah. The Union Home Minister has said that all the patients, if tested COVID positive, have to isolate themselves at Quarantine centers. Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has even asked Amit Shah to “intervene” first. In his letter written to the Home Minister, Manish Sisodia has asked the roll-back of the order.
Manish Sisodia argues that Amit Shah’s Quarantine Model will put an extra burden on already fractured health infrastructure in Delhi. Surprisingly, Delhi’s health infrastructure has been one of the achievements of the Aam Aadmi Party. Arvind Kejriwal and his party have been boasting about it for the last 5 years.
Manish Sisodia has also written to Lt Governor Anil Baijal asking him to implement the older version of the quarantine model or the Delhi’s Quarantine Model. In this model, if a person tests positive, a team visits the patient’s home to access the severity of the case. Eventually, by following this model until now, Delhi has become the second worst-hit COVID state in India. And, with the current growth rate of infected cases, it will soon surpass Maharashtra as well.
On Tuesday, June 23, the national capital reported its biggest single-day jump of nearly 4,000 new infections, taking the tally to over 66,000 cases.
Interestingly, Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tweeted this morning that Delhi’s home isolation plan has so far been working very well. He also tweeted that he has personally spoken to many patients who took home quarantine.
The question arises here that if the model was a successful one, why it couldn’t control the spread of coronavirus infection. Another question arises that if Delhi’s health infrastructure has been the biggest achievement of the Delhi Government in the last 5 years, why and how it didn’t have basic facilities. Has the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government been hiding the facts? Why it cannot develop a consensus with the Lt Governor or the Central Government on any matter, whatsoever? Why it could not take decisions like Chennai or Bengaluru to reimplement lockdown to break the coronavirus infection chain? Why?
