Don’t Do Petty Politics in Midst of COVID War: BJD to BJP

Bhubaneswar: Ruing Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today urged the Odisha unit of BJP not to do petty politics when the State is in the midst of COVID-19 war.

Countering BJP leader Golak Mohapatra’s remarks on COVID-19 testing in Odisha, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Dr. Sasmit Patra said, ‘the BJP should not do petty politics when we are in the midst of COVID war. Odisha is in better situation regarding COVID because of our strategy of Temporary Medical Centers which none of the states have done, he added.

“Can the BJP spokesperson say in which BJP run-state the Temporary Medical Centers have been established right upto the Panchayat level? No state has done that except Odisha”, Patra said.

The Government of India and the ICMR as the national nodal scientific agency for monitoring COVID has suggested COVID testing of Symptomatic persons only. Accordingly, Odisha is doing COVID testing for symptomatic persons as per ICMR guidelines because of which Odisha’s situation is under control. Odisha has also been doing random testing as per ICMR guidelines, the BJD spokesperson said.

He said, “As per Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s directions, the COVID testing capacity has been increased to 15,000 per day but Odisha is undertaking the testing as per ICMR and Government of India guidelines. The same testing process is also being followed by BJP and Congress ruled states across India”.

BJP should first read and learn about their own party run Centre’s COVID testing guidelines and follow it rather than politicizing such a sensitive issue, he added.