Aggressive testing key to fight battle against COVID-19: Manmohan Singh
New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said that without aggressive testing facilities, India cannot conquer challenges posed by COVID-19.
Testing and tracing are the key to fighting the menace, he said in a video released by the Congress.
"There are problems with regard to the inadequacy of testing facilities and without more aggressive facilities of testing, we are not going to conquer this menace," Manmohan Singh said.
The Congress shared the thoughts of various leaders in the video to resolve the current crisis relating to the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown. The leaders are members of a consultative group headed by Singh and formulate the party's views on various matters.
They also stressed on the issue of humanism, protection and financial security to drive the approach to dealing with migrant labourers. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the party should have a broad framework for protection of migrants.
"We must insist that migrants are protected. But, we must also acknowledge that state governments are actually going to be responsible for driving this thing. Different state governments might choose different methodologies to solve this problem," he said.
Gandhi said, "Our migrant strategy should include protection. The idea that you can tell the migrant that it is his problem, that has to be central. Movement of the migrant should depend on the two states and they should have a conversation."
"Testing and Tracing are the key to fight COVID19. Humanism, protection and financial security must drive our approach to dealing with migrant labourers. This is the only way ahead," the Congress said while sharing the video.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram suggested that one must leave it to the state from where the migrant originally came in to find ways to take back the migrants from other states.
"But, the bulk will have to remain where they are. They have to be immediately given cash and grain," he noted.
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said "The government is failing in this battle and we have to put pressure on the government for the people of the country."
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government's financial action plan 1 has not really worked and "government needs to step up".
Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh sought scaling up testing facilities and noted that the country had the capacity to triple the amount of testing. For reaching a threshold level of covering one per cent of population, "we have to do something like 10 million tests", he said.
Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said it is incumbent upon the Congress to collectively apply our minds and suggest a smart plan to how do we transition out of this lockdown due to all the issues arising out of it, especially the economic issue.
The Congress also said that it believes in dialogue and discussion as the path to finding solutions.
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Assam: 20 illegal immigrants pushed back to Bangladesh
Guwahati (PTI): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said 20 foreign nationals were apprehended in the state and pushed back to Bangladesh.
"Rude people don't understand soft language... We continuously remind ourselves of this prophetic line when we expel infiltrators from Assam who don't leave themselves. For instance, these 20 illegal Bangladeshis who were PUSHED BACK last night," Sarma said in a post on X.
He, however, did not share details pertaining to the location where they were nabbed or their nationality.
"Assam will fight, Pushbacks WILL CONTINUE," Sarma asserted.
Sribhumi, Cachar, Dhubri and South Salmara-Mankachar districts in Assam share 267.5 km of the international border with Bangladesh.
There is an Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Sutarkandi in Sribhumi. The northeast has a total of three ICPs along the India-Bangladesh border, the other two being at Dawki in Meghalaya and Akhaura in Tripura.
Another ICP in the region is at Darranga in Assam along the India-Bhutan border.
The Assam Police had earlier said that the force and the BSF would do everything possible to prevent any attempt by non-Indians to enter the country from Bangladesh, as per law, following a political turmoil in the neighbouring nation in 2024.
However, all Indian passport holders have been allowed to return from trouble-hit Bangladesh through the entry point in the state.
