Shah reviews steps taken by Delhi municipal bodies in meeting with Kejriwal

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday held a meeting with top functionaries of Delhi's three municipal bodies along with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take stock of the COVID-19 situation in the national capital.

This was the second high-level meeting held during the day in the wake of rising cases of the novel coronavirus. The first meeting Shah took was with Baijal, Kejriwal, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and senior officials of the Union Home and Health Ministries and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.

The key objectives of the second meeting were to review the steps taken by the municipal bodies and how to check the further spread of the virus, a government official said.

Apart from Shah, Baijal, Kejriwal and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, mayors of Delhi's North and East municipal corporations -- Avtar Singh and Anju Kamalkant respectively -- attended the meeting. A representative of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation was present.

Commissioners of the three municipal corporations also attended the meeting.

Earlier Sunday, the home minister announced that Covid-19 testing will be doubled in Delhi in the next two days and subsequently increased by three times.

Announcing a slew of measures to check the spread of the virus in the national capital after he held a meeting with Baijal and Kejriwal, Shah also said COVID-19 tests will be started at every polling station in containment zones and a comprehensive house-to-house health survey will be conducted in the hotspots for contact-tracing.

In view of a shortage of beds for coronavirus-infected patients in Delhi, the Modi government has decided to immediately provide 500 railway coaches which will be equipped with all facilities, he said.

Shah said a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of V K Paul, a member of the NITI Aayog, to ensure the availability of 60 per cent beds by private hospitals at lower rates and fix the rate of coronavirus testing and treatment.

The committee will submit its report by Monday.

The Covid-19 tally has reached nearly 39,000 in Delhi and the virus has claimed more than 1,200 lives in the capital.