In recent days, Delhi has seen a tremendous surge in COVID-19 cases, prompting several meetings between the state government and the Centre to chalk out a plan of action. For the last few days around 3,000 positive cases have been reported daily from the national capital.
Against this backdrop, on Tuesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding doctors and nurses from the ITBP and the Army to run a 10,000-bed COVID-19 care facility being set up in south Delhi. As per a post by news agency ANI, he had also invited Shah to the 10,000-bedded COVID-19 care centre at Radha Soami Satsang Beas campus in Chhattarpur.
This however seems to have already been agreed upon by the two leaders some time ago. Replying to the ANI tweet Shah noted on Tuesday evening this had "already been decided in our meeting 3 days back".
"MHA has assigned the work of operating the 10,000 bed COVID Care Centre at Radha Swami Beas in Delhi to ITBP. The work is in full swing and a large part of the facility will be operational by 26th June," he wrote on Twitter.
Following this, BJP leader B L Santhosh and others have branded Kejriwal as a "publicity virus" and even called him and his party "shameless anarchists".
"Delhi’s publicity virus stuck CM @ArvindKejriwal gets a royal rebuke from Home Minister @AmitShah after trying to take credit for an effort put up by Union Govt . Shameless anarchists .Decency & @AamAadmiParty are opposite words," he tweeted.
Delhi would need 1.5 lakh beds in healthcare facilities by July 31 once people start coming to the city for treatment from other states, Kejriwal had earlier said, adding that his government had "unprecedented challenges" ahead as data showed that COVID-19 cases would rapidly increase in Delhi in the coming days.
On Monday, Delhi recorded 2,909 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the tally in the city over the 62,000-mark, while the death toll from the disease climbed to 2,233.
(With inputs from agencies)
