THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has alleged that governance has gone virtual as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan did not hand over charge to any of his cabinet colleagues before leaving for treatment overseas. During a media interaction at Indira Bhavan, Chennithala also claimed that the state has seen a huge number of casualties over the past seven months due to Covid.
Chennithala lamented that ministers were not coming to the secretariat. He alleged that the LDF government is betraying people who voted them to power. Taking a jibe at the health department, he appreciated the role of the tablet Dolo, saying the medicine has helped officials to combat Covid.
The Congress leader did not spare CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan either, for his controversial comment that actor Mammootty had contracted Covid even though he had not attended CPM party meetings. That other people are also getting infected shows the alarming spread of the disease, Chennithala maintained.
“People are being pushed to their fate as the party’s sole focus is on its interests. It is high time the state government stopped giving prominence to party meetings, with college union elections too on the anvil, on January 25. This explains why the colleges are not being shut,” Chennithala said.
He also highlighted eight points that have led to the spurt in Covid cases -- party meetings, schools and colleges remaining open, lack of preparation ahead of the third wave, lack of adequate medicines in hospitals, failure in ensuring homecare medical service, formation of home clusters, failure to start community kitchens, and not readying Covid First Line Treatment Centres in advance.