Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday accused the YSRCP government of conducting "false COVID-19 tests" on its party leaders and sending them for official quarantine in order to settle political scores.
He also charged the ruling party with 'playing games' with public health, saying it was evident from the alleged corruption scams in COVID test kits purchase and also in the purchase of spurious bleaching powder.
On false reports of COVID-test conducted on his party MLAs and MLCs, the TDP chief said this "ugly face" of the government came to light during a recent budget session of Assembly.
"The AP government gave a report saying that TDP MLC G Deepak Reddy tested positive and insisted on him to come for official quarantine immediately. This trick was being played on those Opposition leaders coming from the neighbouring states," Naidu said in a statement.
But Deepak Reddy had already undergone SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test at two locations in Telangana where he was tested negative, Naidu said.
Naidu has sought explanation from the ruling party leaders for the need to send the TDP MLC for quarantine even before he was confirmed positive for coronavirus.
"The Deepak Reddy instance throws up doubts whether the YSRCP regime was using COVID-19 tests for taking political vengeance. It was a cheap tactic on the part of the government not to mention which test they have conducted on him," Naidu said.
It was condemnable that a person who tested negative for the virus was falsely reported as positive, he added.
As per the central guidelines, Naidu said that the Truenat test would be initially conducted. If this test shows positive, then RT-PCR should be mandatorily conducted for final confirmation of the coronavirus. This procedure was not followed in the case of the MLC, the TDP chief alleged.
Naidu accused the government of showing 'negligence' and 'cheap tactics' at a time when coronavirus infections were rising unabated in Andhra Pradesh.
"The government should also be answerable to the people whether the tests it was conducting on the people were reliable or not," he noted.