'Appalling' state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh: Cong MP Vivek Tankha

The state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh is appalling and there is a need for an administrative structure in its Health department, which is working without a dedicated minister, Congress parliamentarian Vivek Tankha said on Friday.

Citing the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the state, Tankha suggested a two-pronged strategy better management or containment in hotspot areas and more tests to detect patients.

"The state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh is appalling. From negligible cases of coronavirus in MP on March 23, today the figure has crossed the 1,000-mark," he told PTI.

Indore, which detected its first local case of coronavirus on March 27, now has 842 cases, Tankha said.

As many as 196 confirmed cases have been reported in Bhopal so far, from just one on March 28, he added.

Of these, 95 patients are from the state's Health department who were not even frontline warriors, the Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh said.

The number of coronavirus cases in the state has climbed to 1,308 so far.

"There have been negligible tests in other parts of the state and the results (of infections/contamination) are still unclear from there," Tankha said, fearing further rise in cases.

The MP said the best course of action for the state government was to have a two-pronged strategy for better management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"First, there is a need for better management or containment in hotspot areas and second strategy is to have 'tests and tests', as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO)," he said.

Tankha also suggested that the state should have a proper administrative structure in its Health department.

Currently, there is no health minister in Madhya Pradesh as Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who took oath as the chief minister on March 23, is yet to have his council of ministers.

"Really a disdainful turn of events. Height of insensitivity. Even suffering and mounting death toll is irrelevant for them. 1 man government creating records after records of tragic existence," the Congress party MP said in a tweet.

Tankha has recently written to President Ram Nath Kovind against "the illegally designed and poorly conceived one-man show unconstitutionally thrust upon the 7.5 crore people of Madhya Pradesh".

"This shenanigan gravely impacts and imperils the war against coronavirus," he said. A chief minister was sworn in amidst the lockdown in Bhopal on March 23, without a Cabinet, Tankha added.

Article 163 of the Constitution mandates that "there shall be a council of ministers with the Chief Minister as the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions...".

Tankha said a one-man government without a Cabinet was an unthinkable "constitutional anathema".

Madhya Pradesh deserves to be governed by a Cabinet, he added.

"This is what the Constitution mandates. Madhya Pradesh cannot be deprived of this constitutional privilege and especially so in this extreme crisis situation," the parliamentarian said in the letter seeking the president's intervention.