Wednesday, 16 June 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Uttarakhand Congress has demanded that strict action should be taken against those involved in the Covid-19 testing during Kumbh in Haridwar. The spokesperson of Uttarakhand Congress, Garima Dasauni has said that the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) had ordered that the administration should conduct at least 50000 tests in a day during Kumbh but it was never fulfilled. She said that now it has come to the fore that a large number of fake tests were conducted during the Kumbh by private agencies roped in by the administration which shows that corruption was deep rooted in the organisation of the event. The Congress leader accused the state government of complacency and putting the lives of people at stake during Kumbh.
Reacting to the allegation of irregularities in sample testing, the director general (DG) of state health services, Dr Tripti Bahuguna said that an investigation by the district magistrate of Haridwar is going on the issue and appropriate action would be taken on the basis of report submitted.
The issue
On the complaints of irregularities in the Covid 19 tests during Kumbh the Haridwar district administration had ordered a probe into the issue. A committee headed by the Chief Development Officer (CDO) of Haridwar, Saurabh Gaharwar is said to have found many irregularities in the tests conducted by private agencies. The probe revealed that on one ID and phone number registration of as many as 50 people were done. Many individuals who were shown as sample collectors were found to be the residents of Rajasthan and they had not even visited Haridwar during Kumbh.
It is worth mentioning here that Kumbh was organised in Haridwar from April 1 to 30 this year. As per the government data a total of 6,00291 tests were conducted in Haridwar during this period and out of them 17375 were found positive for Covid 19. During this period 4,42,432 tests were conducted in other 12 districts of Uttarakhand and out of them 62,735 were found positive. The data clearly shows a major difference between the positivity rate of Haridwar ( 2.98 percent) with the rest of the state (14.18 percent) during Kumbh. Health expert Anoop Nautiyal said that the ongoing investigation should not be limited to private labs but it should cover all government labs and agencies engaged by the government. He even demanded a judicial investigation in the matter.
