IT News
Mumbai, April 24,
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s party Shiv Sena has attacked the Centre for buying expensive, low quality and faulty COVID-19 sample testing kits from China.
In an editorial published in its mouthpiece ‘’Saamana’’, the Shiv Sena has questioned the Centre’s decision to buy the Rapid Testing Kits from China, which is being blamed for the COVID-19 outbreak. The “Saamana” editorial said that the Centre has made it clear that the states will buy medical kits, relief materials from it, but the first consignment of 20 lakh rapid testing kits from China proved faulty and it is of no use.
The editorial stated that US President Donald Trump calls the coronavirus as ‘Chinese Virus’ but India still chose to trust China over testing kits. “As per the Centre’s policy, the states should rely on the Centre for materials needed in the war against the COVID 19… but how will this war be won, since the Chinese materials are of low quality and faulty? The first batch of rapid testing kits ordered by the Modi government from China turned out to be useless. When the Chinese goods finally went to the wreckage, the Centre had to inform the states to use the kits made by the National Institute of Virology, Pune (Maharashtra) instead of the current “bogus” kits!”,
It continued by saying, “It’s no coincidence that Trump is calling it the ‘China virus’, since because of China, the world has plunged into a crisis. Nobel laureate scientists claim that the Coronavirus, which spread from China to the rest of the world, is man-made. There is no certainty as to what China will do next. Despite this, nations like India are taking large quantities of rapid test kits of the COVID-19 from China. In a way, we are working to strengthen China’s economy. That is why it is time for us to dispose of millions of rapid test kits purchased from China.”
Lashing out at China, the “Saamana” editorial said that Maharashtra has received 75,000 Chinese rapid test kits from the Centre. Rapid tests started in corona hot spots like Dharavi in Central Mumbai, but the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC) administration stopped the tests, since Chinese goods were scrapped. Not only in Maharashtra there are complaints about the defective Chinese kits all over the country.
”All this confusion is raising concerns about Corona. It is a confusion that shows how serious we are in this battle and how there is no unanimity in the decision. It is shocking that China, which cannot be trusted, and which has plunged the world into an epidemic, has joined hands to fight the same virus,” it said.
In similar way the Shiv Sena had attacked Modi, in an article in ‘Saamna’ for his China visit in April 2018 saying Modi skipped discussing important issues with Chinese president Xi Jinping and Modi was following Nehru’s ‘no war policy’ on China.
In related development the United Kingdom has already dumped the Two million home test kits worth $20 million, bought from two Chinese firms, namely, “AllTest Biotech” and “Wondfo Biotech”, since they proved to be faulty and insufficiently accurate by a laboratory at the Oxford University.
