Jaipur, Apr 21 () A five-member team from the Centre on Tuesday visited Jaipur and took stock of the Rajasthan's anti-Covid fight, said officials.
The central team, led by Additional Secretary Sanjeev Kaushik of Financial Services Department, visited various places in the city, including Ramganj, in the a walled city area, which has emerged as a major COVID-19 hotspot with majority of 648 cases in Jaipur reported from here, they said.
"The central team visited Ramganj and nearby areas and reviewed the arrangements. They assessed law and order situation, compliance of curfew and lockdown, food and ration distribution arrangements among others," said Jaipur's Chief Medical and Health Officer, Dr Narottam Sharma.
The committee also held a video conference with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and state officials and discussed the efforts being made to contain the spread of coronavirus.
During the video conference, the chief minister insisted on a centralised procedure for the procurement of testing kits, ventilators and other medical equipments by the Central government.
He said the Centre should procure these equipment centrally and make them available to states so as to avoid competitions among states.
Gehlot also broached up the issue of China-maderapid testing kits for corona infection yielding inaccurate results and said it was a matter of concern. He said a research team of SMS Medical College and Rajasthan University of Health Sciences was examining it.
The CM said that further course of action in context of the rapid testing kits will be taken after the response from the Indian council of medical research and report of the research team.
He also raised the issues of migrant labours, demanded a relief package from the Central government to all the states, besides packages for reviving business and ensuring social security of people.
He said the central government should announce a relief package for states without any further delay.
Gehlot said the state government was working on a plan to utilise MLAs' local area development fund for the next two years to supplement in improvement on healthcare services to fight corona.
"We are taking all possible steps for every sections but the central government should help states in restoring the economy," he said.
Apart from the members of the central team, state Health Minister Raghu Sharma, Chief Secretary D B Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajeeva Swarup, ACS (Medical & Health) Rohit Kumar Singh and other officers were also present in the video conferencing.
Gehlot later told reporters through a video conference that the team has expressed satisfaction on the state government's efforts.
Later, the central team visited Ramganj. The team will be staying for a couple of days in Jaipur.
Jaipur accounts for 39 per cent cent of cases reported in Rajasthan. Of the total 1,659 positive cases, 648 are from Jaipur only and most of these cases are from Ramganj, which is a densely populated area in the walled city. 13 deaths have also occurred in Jaipur due to coronavirus. SDA RAXRAX