Even as restrictions were lifted across the country on May 4, Telangana has remained under lockdown as Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had earlier extended the second phase of the lockdown in the state until May 7.
While confusion prevailed on whether citizens can go out, the state government has not been too helpful in clarifying this either. For several days now, the official website of the Telangana government, https://covid19.telangana.gov.
When it was functional before April 30, the website had collated all available data in the state on COVID-19 and was a credible source of information for the public. With the website yet to resume operations, members of the public are now relying on media reports.
That is not all. With the state government drawing flak for its poor testing numbers, it has also removed information about the number of samples tested so far from the Health Department’s website. Telangana was testing around 200-odd samples per day as of last week, when other states were testing several thousand samples each day.
Activists and opposition parties in Telangana allege that by doing this the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is shunning its responsibility.
In a statement, K Krishna Saagar Rao, Chief Spokesperson for the BJP’s Telangana unit, said, “The BJP is wondering what the TRS government is trying to hide as it tries to downplay and manipulate the facts regarding COVID-19 spread in the state.”
“The BJP demands a clear explanation from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on why testing data is not being released since April 19 in the daily health bulletins? While all other states in India are declaring the number of tests per day, the TRS government is acting indifferently during this serious public health crisis,” he added.
He also stated that there was a “clear pattern of wilful neglect” by the state government and said it was “shooting in the dark, with no idea of how much the virus has spread in the community”.
“Public health information is the right of every citizen. The state government trying to hide, manipulate and cover up this information will lead to serious implications on public health and public accountability of a democratically elected government,” the statement added.
Syed Nizamuddin, spokesperson for the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), told TNM, “Transparency has not been there from day one. The present government has always been reluctant to make information public.”
He also pointed out that it was “fishy” that the number of COVID-19 cases in the state decreased drastically only for the few days that a team from the Centre was visiting Hyderabad.
“Until the central team visited Telangana last week, the state was showing a sharp increase in the number of cases. When the team reached Hyderabad, they began testing less and only single-digit cases were being reported each day,” Syed said.
“Once the team left, cases have gone up again. Above all this, they have not been sharing any information with the public, which is gross negligence on their part,” he added.
Social activist Lubna Sarwath said that the lack of transparency from the Telangana government is “criminal”.
“When the humanitarian crisis struck in March, it was NGOs and social workers who came forward to feed people who were stranded due to the lockdown. The people of Telangana are equal participants in the governance of the state and it is the duty of the state government to make information public,” she told TNM.
“Whenever a decision is arbitrary and not transparent, there is usually a mala fide intention. Don’t the citizens have a right to know?” she questioned.
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