Lucknow: An FIR was filed against a retired IAS officer in Lucknow, UP for a tweet in which he raised questions about the state government’s testing policy related to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the tweet, he had alleged a top UP government official was asking juniors in districts to go slow on testing samples. The FIR says, “The accused’s June 10 tweet has wrong facts and misinformation, and has led to an atmosphere of fear among the public at large. Singh has been charged with disobeying rules, intent to incite and other sections of the law on epidemics control.”
Singh had tweeted in Hindi on June 10: “After CM Yogi’s Team-11 meeting, the chief secy scolded district magistrates carrying out a large number of Corona tests saying, ‘Why have you picked up such pace, are you going to get a prize you are shouting test,test?’ @ChiefSecyUP please clarify? Is no test = no corona UP’s strategy?”
After FIR, Singh posted his video comment in which he wonders why merely asking questions invites criminal proceedings. He further reiterated his charge in the video and alleged that over one lakh samples are being collected everyday in the State while only a few thousands tests are being done.
Singh alleged, “Officials and ministers are citing different numbers of tests ranging from 8,000 to 15,000 per day. CM says 75% migrants from Mumbai and 50% from Delhi have corona. So, how does the state plan to test 25 lakh migrants? Or have they been left to die?”
