Delhi government alleges pressure by Centre to not increase COVID-19 tests

New Delhi: Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Thursday alleged that the Ministry of Home Affairs was pressuring officials in the Delhi government to prevent them from doubling the daily COVID-19 testing number in the Capital and also wrote to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla over the issue. Jain sought answers to why such pressures were being put on the state government and that it was not appropriate for the MHA to interfere in the matters of the elected state government.

The health minister requested the Central Government to not interfere with the work of Delhi's elected government and also attached a note with the letter which stated how Delhi government officials were not allowing the tests to increase in the Capital due to pressure from the Central Government. The letter sparked a twitter battle between the MHA and Jain.

"The letter of the Delhi Health Minister has annexed a note of the officers of the Delhi Govt. It may be noted that this note has made no mention whatsoever of any instruction of MHA on the matter of increase in testing in Delhi," MHA wrote in a twitter thread.

"The note has only proposed that the views of an Expert Committee headed by Dr V.K Paul may be taken on the proposed enhancement in testing in Delhi, for technical guidance on various issues such as mix of RT-PCR & Rapid Antigen, categories of geographical areas & demographics," the MHA clarified while quoting the note which was attached to the letter written by Jain.

Jain responding to the thread said, "I hope that the officers will comply with this msg from MHA. I am sure that the officers, who were reluctant to increase testing today citing pressure from MHA, will immediately increase testing in Delhi."

The AAP Minister in his letter said that Delhi Principal Health Secretary — Vikram Dev Dutt — had issued a notice directing officials to not increase tests, without the knowledge of the Chief Minister and other Cabinet ministers. "When this notice was questioned by higher authorities within the Delhi government, Dutt said that he was pressured by the Home Ministry to issue orders to not allow increased testing.

"Allegation raised in the letter of the Delhi Health Minister dated August 27 which is addressed to the Union Home Secretary, to the effect that MHA is putting pressure on Delhi Govt officers not to increase testing in Delhi is false and baseless," the MHA wrote on twitter.

Meanwhile, the AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said that this order is "inexplicable, incomprehensible, shocking, surprising and flabbergasting". He said that the Central Government must roll back this illegal, unconstitutional order which has a massive negative impact on the health situation of Delhi.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central Government has instructed the Delhi Government officials not to increase the number of tests in Delhi. Today the Union Home Ministry which is under the BJP has sent this order," Chadha said.