KOCHI: Opposition leader VD Satheesan has accused the government of sabotaging the Covid protocol for facilitating the conduct of the CPM's district conferences.
Speaking to reporters here on Friday, Satheesan also alleged that the government forced the Kasaragod collector to withdraw an order which banned public functions and events in the district due to the spike in Covid cases.
"Yesterday (Thursday), the Kasaragod collector issued an order prohibiting all public meetings and functions to stop the spread of Covid. However, the CPM intervened and forced her to withdraw the order in the night," he said.
Stating that the government tweaked the Covid protocols to suit the holding of CPM district conferences., Satheesan said till now, the Covid restrictions were imposed based on the test positivity rate.
"However, they changed the rules on Thursday, and they have not put both Kasaragod and Thrissur districts, where the CPM district conferences began from Friday, under no categories," he said. "This means, there are no Covid curbs in Thrissur and Kasaragod," Satheesan said.
The TPR for Kasaragod and Thrissur were 36 per cent and 34 per cent respectively on Thursday. Under the Covid protocol, there shouldn't have been any public events or crowding in these two districts based solely on the TPR.
"However, the government chose to exclude these two districts from any Covid restrictions only to allow the CPM district conferences. Allowing 300-400 people for the party conferences will lead to the spread of Covid," he said, pointing out that the hundreds of people including MLA and ministers were infected with Covid after attending the CPM Thiruvananthapuram district conference.