JOIN USAmid COVID-19 concerns, Jaganmohan Reddy govt says situation conducive for local body polls
The Andhra Pradesh government has asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to revoke its order postponing the local body polls stating that there is only one positive coronavirus case in the state.
A day after the SEC has deferred the local body polls by six weeks because of the COVID-19 situation, state chief secretary Nilam Sawhney wrote to State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar remarking that the Commission should have consulted with the state prior to making such decision.
“As on date, there is only one confirmed positive case and that too of a person who has returned from Italy. This is an indication that at present, local transmission has not set in and that the spread of coronavirus in the state is under control,” the topmost official in the state said in the letter.
The Jaganmohan Reddy government had last week invoked the provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 in the state. The 2, 3, 4 sections of the act empower the district authorities to contain any area to prevent disease transmission.
In AP, over 800 hundred people were kept under observation, while samples of over 80 were tested for the deadly virus.
However, in her letter, the CS said that “considering that there is no local transmission, leave alone community transmission, there may be no threat of the outbreak in alarming proportion in the next 3-4 weeks.”
The postponement had irked the ruling YSRCP. A chagrined Reddy had on Sunday accused that COVID-19 was used as an excuse by the SEC to postpone elections his YSRC Party would have won hands down.
He even said Nimmagadda was a man appointed by former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Naidu refuted the accusations while ridiculing CM’s statements that coronavirus could be cured with Paracetamol and eradicated with bleaching powder.
“People are saying he should be given a Nobel prize. When the CM is behaving foolishly, the CS should have acted responsibly. But she says there is only one case and no virus threat,” Naidu told reporters on Monday.
Meanwhile, Nimmagadda met AP governor Biswabhusan Harichandan to apprise him on the circumstances forcing the postponement of the polls.
Elections to the rural and urban local bodies in the state are due since 2018 and 2019. According to the earlier plan, polls to MPTCs, ZPTCs, municipalities and panchayats were to be held in a 10-day continuous schedule beginning March 21.
Pointing to the large-scale violence allegedly by the YSRCP men during the nomination process, the TDP and the BJP are demanding an entirely new schedule with fresh nominations.
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