In an interview to Preetha Nair, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren talks about the state’s preparedness and the Centre’s alleged negligence in providing assistance. Excerpts:
The PM has asked all states to come up with an exit strategy.
The states weren’t consulted before announcing the lockdown, so it’s strange that we are being asked for suggestions on the exit strategy. During the video conference with the PM last week, I didn’t even get a chance to talk about my state’s problems. We will assess the situation and decide the strategy accordingly.
Is Jharkhand conducting sufficient tests?
We don’t know which stage we are in, but once we accelerate our testing, we will come to know. We have been writing to the Centre since March 21 that we need more testing kits, PPEs, ventilators, masks, thermal scanners etc. We asked for 300 thermal scanners, but got only 100—that too, only three days ago. We must have scanners in...
