The arrival of five-member inter-ministerial central team on a three-day visit to Hyderabad starting Saturday to study the Covid-19 situation in the Telangana state capital raised many an eyebrow.
Till the other day, the Centre has been going soft towards Telangana and Andhra Pradesh notwithstanding the fact that both the states have been reporting high incidence of Coronavirus.
However, Union home minister G Kishan Reddy is learnt to have brought to the notice of the Prime Minister that the Telangana government in particular has been showing a soft corner towards the Muslims in the old city of Hyderabad, where there is a largescale prevalence of the disease.
Kishan Reddy reportedly complained to the Centre that the old city of Hyderabad had become a hub for the returnees of last month’s Tablighi Jamaat conference and many of them were still hiding in the old city, thanks to the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, but KCR has been indifferent due to his friendship with the MIM.
Majority of the positive cases in the state were due to these Tablighi Jamaat returnees, but KCR has been hiding the facts. Out of 990 positive cases registered in the entire Telangana state till Saturday night, as many as 517 positive cases were reported only in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.
Following the complaint from Kishan Reddy, the Modi government sent the Central team which has apparently come fully equipped with factual figures. The team toured different parts of the old city and containment zones to come to their own assessment.
During the meeting with the DGP and other senior police officers, the central team reportedly posed a lot of probing questions. They reportedly gave strong instructions to bring the situation under control in the next couple of weeks.