New Delhi: Days after the Centre urged States to intensify testing for Covid-19, a top official has called for strict action against States that are failing to do so, triggering speculations that the Union government is planning to act against them.
Stating that Telangana and Bihar, among some other states, were just not doing enough testing to detect coronavirus positive cases, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that these states needed to be named and shamed.
“Why are states like Telangana, Bihar just not doing enough testing and not putting out data. Consequences of this will be seen in two-three months. All these states, which are not doing testing, need to be shamed,” he said.
Kant said states and districts should be ranked not in terms of absolute number of Covid-19 cases, but in terms of testing. “Name and shame the states which are not doing testing. This is the only way you get results in India. Without that you will not,” he said, during an event organised by the India Policy Forum.
He added: “This data on testing should be put in the public domain and then should be subject to a lot of analysis. And you will see the results coming.”
Kant further stated that there was no other solution to contain the pandemic other than testing. “Testing is really the key. This would require partnership with the private sector as the battle (against coronavirus) cannot be won by the government alone,” he added.