KTR slams the opposition for criticizing the State government over the measures to check the spread of Covid-19

Karimnagar: IT, Industries and Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao on Wednesday said merely coining slogans will not do any good to the country, and what was required was practical thinking and a lot of effort to achieve self-reliance.

The Minister, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Aatma Nirbhar Bharat” (Self-reliant India) slogan, said it will require a lot of planning, practical approach and humongous effort to reach the objective of self-reliance.

As an example, he pointed out that 78 per cent of the medical devices used in the country are being imported from other counties. “It shows that medical infrastructure in the country was poor, and the time has come to develop all these devices in the country,” he said.

Slamming the opposition for criticising the State government over the measures taken to check the spread of coronavirus in Telangana, Rama Rao, who participated in several programmes in the district, said instead of supporting the government in these critical times, the opposition parties were playing politics though elections were four years away.

On the Opposition leaders’ comments that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was neglecting the issue of checking the spread of the virus, and that the government was not doing enough testing, Rama Rao said the allegations were baseless. “If the government is not doing enough testing and is suppressing data, how are the Covid related deaths coming out?” he asked, but admitted that there were some problems. 

The opposition, however, should not make baseless allegations without



knowing facts, he added.

The opposition allegations were affecting the morale of doctors, medical staff, police and sanitation works who are in the forefront in the fight against corona, he said, adding that as responsible opposition parties, they should give constructive suggestions. “The government is willing to consider genuine and correct suggestions from them,” he said.

Rama Rao, accompanied by Ministers Eatala Rajender and Koppula Eashwar, TS Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar and others launched Prathima Sanchara Aarogya Ratham and Aarogya Prathima Clinic introduced by Prathima foundation at Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagunur.

He said the mortality rate of Covid-19 patients in Telangana State was just 2 per cent against the national average of 3 per cent. Some countries, he said, had mortality rate of 14 per cent, he said, adding that out of 22,000 people who tested positive for the virus, 98 per cent had recovered and only 2 per cent people died. “But, nobody talks about the 98 per cent recovery cases,” he pointed out.

The Minister urged the media to highlight positive happenings instead of projecting only the negative issues.

Stating that coronavirus was a big lesson to the entire world, Rama Rao said governments and people should use the situation and convert adversity into opportunity that would help them face any kind of situation in the future. He also pointed out that of the six pharma institutions engaged in developing vaccine for covid, four are from Telangana and Hyderabad.