Delhi govt, MHA at loggerheads over Kejriwal decision to double testing in capital

Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government and the Centre are once again locked in a tussle on tackling Covid-19, with the former on Thursday accusing the Amit Shah-led Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of putting pressure on the state officials not to double the testing to 40,000.

However, the MHA denied the allegations, saying it was "without any basis" while emphasising that it has "only proposed" that the views of Dr VK Paul-led Expert Committee may be taken for technical guidance on various issues such as a mix of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests, categories of geographical areas and demographics.

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The confrontation came a day after Kejriwal announced that the number of Covid-19 testing will be increased in the capital from the existing around 20,000 to 40,000 in a week, keeping in mind the recent trend of increasing cases.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday wrote to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla protesting against the move, which the AAP-led government called pressurising its officials.

In a press conference, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said the MHA has acted in an "unconstitutional" way by keeping the Delhi government in the dark. "This order is inexplicable, unexplainable, incomprehensible, shocking, surprising and flabbergasting," he told a press conference.

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He demanded that the Centre roll back this "illegal, unconstitutional order which has a massive negative impact" over the health situation of Delhi.

Chadha said the World Health Organization (WHO) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have clearly stated that the only way to fight the pandemic is "testing, testing and testing" and Kejriwal kept this in mind when he took the decision to double the number of testing.

On Thursday, Delhi reported 1,840 cases and 22 deaths. For the past few days, the number of cases has been on the rise.

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Denying the allegations, an MHA spokesperson said it was "false and baseless". The spokesperson said the number of daily tests in Delhi, which was averaging around 4,000 per day till mid-June, rose to around 18-20,000 only after the intervention of Shah.

"The marked improvement in the Covid-19 situation in Delhi has been possible due to this enhanced testing and other containment measures...As such, any allegation that MHA is putting pressure on Delhi Govt not to increase testing in Delhi is absolutely without any basis," the spokesperson said.

The Centre and Delhi government were at loggerheads earlier over a variety of issues, including on home isolation, reserving hospital beds only for Delhi residents and opening of hotels.