‘As state government was unprepared, AAP helped people in Covid time in Karnataka’
3 min read
Mysuru: Across the world Covid-19 the sheer scale of the second wave has taken governments by surprise and caught them unprepared. This has happened in our state also, the question we should ask is how did our government react to it ? What did our government do to support its people at a time of crisis ?
According to Prithvi Reddy, State Convener
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), “In Karnataka the government reacted by announcing a lockdown to prevent spread of the virus. It was not just the state but the state government that went into lockdown and let people to fend for themselves. Sadly the main opposition parties Congress and JDS also let the people down by not raising their voice against the government nor did they come to the rescue themselves.”
It was at this time that the Aam Aadmi Party came forward to the service of the public and launched the public health helpline on April 29.
This helpline was manned by 60 party volunteers, 46 experienced medical professionals and 12 mental health professionals who attended to calls at all times of the day or night.
AAP launched a public welfare campaign called ‘Action Against Pandemic’ to help with the scarcity of hospital beds and to offer support to home isolation patients.
The following services were made available 24/7 over the helpline (7292022063):
• Distribution of high quality oximeters
• Doctor consultations
• Counselling support
• Home Isolation support
In the last month, AAP Karnataka has successfully
• Distributed 3,254 oximeters
• Provided approximately 8,000 patients home isolation support
• Provided daily food to 112 home isolation patients
• Provided counselling by mental health professionals to 1300 patients
• Distributed more than 3,00,000 masks to the needy
• Sanitized over 18,000 locations including apartments, residential complexes, homes, orphanages, old age homes, offices, police stations and police barracks
• Guided over 1,400 patients so they got ICU beds in a timely way
• Organised over 900 oxygen cylinders for patients
• Organized over 200 plasma donors
• Helped more than 260 patients with blood donations
• Provided free food to over 20,000 people from the time lockdown was announced
• Distributed essentials and grocery kits to more than 60,000 families
• Organized approximately 120 oxygen concentrators in different parts of the state
All this has been done by AAP in Karnataka without a single elected MLA or MP, if there was a will the State government could have done this on a massive scale thereby saving lives and reducing the suffering of people in our state.
Even the main opposition parties, JDS and Congress, could have done a lot but have either been caught slumbering or been opportunistic and indulging only in photo-ops to fool the people.
It is still not late, at least now the government should wake up and come forward to reduce the pain and suffering of people in our state. The Government must also take all steps to ensure they are prepared for the third Wave which is supposed to be much worse and even affect our children.
New facilities like oxygen plants, Paediatric ICUs and sufficient stock of medicines need to be planned and implemented right away.
The only real guarantee is vaccination, Government must ensure all eligible people are vaccinated at the earliest such that even if the third wave comes, the suffering and deaths can be minimised, Reddy added.
– Team Mysoorunews
Mysooru News
