Delhi All-Party Meet: 18K Daily COVID Tests Soon, Shah Urges Unity

Fifty percent of charges on testing will also be waived.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah held an all-party meeting on Monday, 15 June, to discuss the coronavirus crisis in Delhi.

(Photo: ANI)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah held an all-party meeting on Monday, 15 June, to discuss the coronavirus crisis in Delhi and urged all parties to rise above party lines to help the people of the national capital.

He also urged parties to rope in their cadres to help increase testing in Delhi.

From 20 June, the Delhi government will start conducting 18,000 COVID-19 tests per day, Delhi BJP Chief Adesh Kumar Gupta said after attending the meeting.

He added that the ruling party had demanded that 50 percent of the charges on testing should be waived, which has been approved by the Union Home minister.

“A united face of all political parties will enhance people's trust and the situation in Delhi will be soon normal. I appeal to all political parties to urge their workers to ensure that the decisions taken by the centre for the people of Delhi are implemented on ground,” Shah said, as quoted by NDTV.

(Catch all live updates on COVID-19 here.)

“I appeal to workers of all political parties to ensure that decisions taken by the central government in the interest of the residents of Delhi are implemented in earnest at the ground level,” ANI quoted him as saying after the meet.

In the meet, the Opposition demanded that COVID-19 testing be provided to all since “everyone has a right to it”.

The Congress demanded that Rs 10,000 be paid to every family whose member is infected or in containment zone, sources told ANI.

The Congress also demanded that the fourth-year medical students be used as non-permanent resident doctors while fourth-year students of Bachelor of Pharmacy or Nursing are accommodated as health workers due to the crunch in healthcare staff in the capital, according to ANI.

“Chief minister has been misleading, and holding private hospitals responsible. We've submitted evidence to home minister, he has sent that for probe by health secretary. Construction of three large hospitals, with 2,609 beds, should've been completed by December 2019. What game is the Delhi government playing?” asked Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar Chaudhary.

The main Opposition party demanded that COVID-19 testing be provided to all as it is after all ‘everyone’s right’.(Photo: ANI)

Congress has also demanded that Rs 10,000 be paid to every family whose member is infected or in containment zone.(Photo: ANI)

The meeting was also attended by leaders of the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. AAP MP Sanjay Singh also participated in the meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The all-party meet comes a day after Shah met Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendra Jain, Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Mayor of Delhi on Sunday.

“It was a very fruitful meeting. Centre and Delhi government will work together against COVID-19,” said Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain had said after the meeting.

The national capital has recorded 38,958 COVID-19 cases, of which 14,945 people have recovered and 1,271 deaths have been reported as on 15 June, 12 pm

(With inputs from ANI and NDTV.)