Chennai/Salem, Apr 17 () DMK president M K Stalinon Friday hit out at Chief Minister K Palaniswami for hisexpectation that the number of fresh coronavirus cases willslide to zero and demanded expeditious steps to procureequipment, carry out rapid testing besides measures fortreatment, relief and rehabilitation.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami, meanwhile, asked Stalinto behave responsbily and asserted that the government wastoeing the guidelines of public health and medical experts totackle COVID-19 and wondered what advice the DMK could offerin the matter.
"We are fighting against COVID-19 vigorously. Theentire government machinery is working against the contagion.Leader of opposition (Stalin) should behave responsibly,"Palaniswami told reporters in Salem, adding this was not thetime for nitpicking but one to save lives.
Earlier, the Dravidian party chief calledPalaniswami's remark related to the manner in whichcoronavirus spread in Tamil Nadu a "joke," and wanted theChief Minister to stop uttering such things and instead soughtmeasures to end the spread of the contagion.
Stalin said, "...it is a rare discovery on classdiscrimination, he should stop uttering such jokes and insteadtake steps to stop spread of coronavirus."
The Chief Minister had said on Thursday: "It is adisease of the rich. People who had travelled abroad or toother states have imported it (to Tamil Nadu). It did notoriginate here."
Stalin, referring to Palaniswami's remark on Thursdaythat the government hoped that new cases will soon be zero inTamil Nadu, said one does not know whether to "laugh or cry."
Palaniswami had said that the state was in the secondstage of the spread and Thursday's new number of cases of 25as against higher numbers in preceding days showed that thestate has managed to contain it.
The Chief Minister had hoped the number of fresh caseswill soon touch zero as the rate of people getting cured wasalso increasing.
Citing statistics related to samples tested andresults awaited, Stalin in a statement wanted to know from thegovernment what percentage the tested people constituted whenthe population of Tamil Nadu was taken into account.
Apparently, he wanted more people tested as part ofefforts to curb the spread of contagion.
According to a bulletin on Thursday, as many as 26,005samples have been tested and 1,267 people have so far turnedpositive and as per census data of 2011 the State has apopulation of 7.21 crore.
The DMK chief alleged that despite his party andothers telling the government to buy testing kits and speed uptesting at a massive pace it was not heeded.
Stalin said rather than spending time in replying tohim, the Chief Minister should take steps to expeditiouslyprocure requisite medical equipment, testing kits and go infor rapid testing and ensure appropriate treatment to theinfected besides relief and rehabilitation to the affected thepeople.
To a question that included DMK holding a meet inChennai on Thursday on COVID-19 to offer consultations to thegovernment, Palaniswami wondered what advice the DMK or otherparties could offer.
"What advice could they give ? Tell me, are theydoctors? The advice is given by medical experts and only if wefollow their advice the spread of the contagion can bestopped. What politicians can say on this issue," the ChiefMinister asked.
The guidelines of a panel of medical experts, UnionHealth Ministry, and the World Health Organisation were beingfollowed, Palaniswami said and wanted to know what was wrongin the government's approach to tackle coronavirus.
"This is an issue involving public health and medicalexperts and the government is following their guidelinesfully," he added.
Avoiding naming the DMK explicitly, he said "they wantto project themselves and try to politicise the issue, it willnot happen."
Asserting that tackling the COVID-19 situation was theprime task on hand, Palaniswami said the government would notgo into the Opposition's claims on the issue.
"We are not going to bother about it, there is no needto reply to him (Stalin). People's lives are important. Thereis nothing to politicise here," he said and appealed to theOpposition parties to extend cooperation to the government andstand with the affected people. VGN SS