Ease process of certification for maximum testing kits: Cong

Congress on Tuesday said that the India was inching closer to reach to stage three of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and asked the government to ease the process of certification to get maximum number of testing kits without compromising quality.

Addressing media through video conferencing, Congress MP and spokesperson Manish Tewari said, "We are progressing towards phase three and the only way to deal better with it is to conduct as many tests as possible."

He said, if we take the India's ratio for coronavirus testing, it is the lowest in the world.

He said, "In India only 32 people are being tested out of 10 lakh people, while in UK it is 921 per 10 lakh people and in US it is 2,600 per 10 lakh people."

Tewari said that World Health Organisation (WHO) in its advisory has also issued an advisory and they are also emphasising on the need for conducting more tests. "The only antidote to COVID-19 spreading is more testing," he said.

Pointing out that only four companies have been allowed to manufacture the testing kits, Tewari said, "I want to demand from the government that only four companies have got the permission to manufacture testing kits while 17 companies applied for testing kits but were asked to bring the FDA or EU approval.

"It is not easy to get FDA or EU approval in the current scenario and hence we request the government to come up with a plan to get maximum number of testing kits without compromising quality and make the same available across India," the Congress leader said.

He also cited the scarcity of the testing kits in India and said that the the state governments do not have much of the testing kits and they have kept the testing kits for emergency time. "And this is a wise strategy to deal with the situation in a targeted way," he said.

He also slammed the government over the handling of the migrant labourers in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly and described it as "unfortunate and inhuman".

"What happened in Bareilly yesterday, the way in which they were sprayed with the chemical is a inhuman act and this once again shows that the difference between India and Bharat," Tewari said.

He said the incident differentiates India which watches Netflix and Bharat where a father walks with his wife and carries his daughter and travel hundred of miles to return home.

"The government should ensure the safe return of the people who are on streets. I had also written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday on how we can take steps to ensure the safe return of these people," he said.

The Congress also demanded Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to ensure that the RBI circular regarding EMIs (being deferred for three months) should be issued widely and that interest subvention arrangement should be made for the interest on the deferred EMI payments. IANS