Lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his government's efficiency in handling the coronavirus-induced crisis, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said he has never tried to take credit for the efforts made collectively by all stakeholders in containing the pandemic in the state.
During a video conference held on April 27 between chief ministers and the Prime Minister, the 'Rajasthan Model' for controlling the spread of coronavirus right from the beginning received praise from Modi.
Gehlot told PTI in an exclusive interview that his state was ahead of the others in all aspects, including the number of COVID-19 tests.
The chief minister said his government has placed orders for the import of two ultra-modern machines from the USA which will enable them to conduct additional four to five thousand tests on a daily basis. He said these machines, developed by Roush, will be delivered by the end of May.
He further said one machine will be used in Jaipur and the other in Jodhpur. Jodhpur is also Gehlot's hometown.
Talking about the steps taken by the Rajasthan government to handle the health crisis, the chief minister said the state took the initiative to control the virus from spreading in the initial days of its spread in India.
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"We were very early to take measures by doing whatever was in our capacity. I not only spoke with the opposition parties but also with the religious and social leaders. I urged them to create awareness among people about the importance of staying at home. They all agreed, and they felt that they were being involved and are a part of the process," Gehlot told PTI.
He said this helped the government machinery and the medical staff immensely.
"We took all the correct steps. We did maximum number of tests. You will see that death rate is minimum (1.7 per cent) in our state while the national average is 3.3".
The chief minister said that Rajasthan was ahead of the national average in other aspects also.
"The doubling rate of coronavirus cases in Rajasthan is more than any other state. It is 11 in our state while five in Gujarat and seven in Uttar Pradesh. The national average is nine days. The recovery rate is also better in comparison of other states," Gehlot said.
He said in Rajasthan 88,000 people have been tested so far, whereby the state's rate of testing is 1,174 people per 10 lakh of population while the national ratio is 450 tests per 10 lakh people and in UP this ratio is 234 tests per 10 lakh.
Gehlot also said his government had been efficient in handling the migrant labourers and students from other states who are stranded in Rajasthan as well as those from the state who are stuck in other parts of the country due to the lockdown.
"From Monday we have started the registration process of migrant labourers and students from Rajasthan who are stranded in other states, and those who belong to other states and want to go back." He said that on the first day around 1,60,000 people from different states registered including 56,000 who belong to different states and want to go back.
When asked about the appreciation from Prime Minister Modi, Gehlot said he never tried to take credit alone for the efforts to deal with the health crisis in the state.
"I never tried to take credit individually. Everyone deserves praise be it the common man, social or political activists or social and religious organizations," he said.
The CM said that given the social and geographical situation of Rajasthan, he is satisfied with the work done so far.
"We are doing 5,000 tests daily now. We have already ordered COBASS 8800 machines from the USA and will get them delivered by the end of May. It will enable us to increase the number of tests by four to five thousand daily. Though the company claims 6,000 daily tests but we hope that at least 45 thousand more tests would be done with this machine," he said.
Refusing to predict when the health crisis would end and normalcy would return, Gehlot said some experts had said the pandemic-induced situation may drag on till June or July.
"As far as lifting the lockdown is concerned, we have initiated a 'modified lockdown' from April 20. Under this 7,000 small, medium and big units across 288 places have been restarted and more than 50,000 labourers are back to work," he said.
On the issue of financial help from the centre, he said he demanded an ad hoc relief package of rupees one lakh crore to enable the states in dealing with the situation "but nothing has been done so far".
"Countries like USA, France, and Germany have announced hefty packages to deal with this crisis. Some have declared to allocate 12 percent while some are contributing 15 percent of their GDP but in India the centre so far has not given even one percent of GDP," he said.