Kerala reported nine fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the total number in the state to 336, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The chief minister also decried reports that some people from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, who were stranded in Wayanad, were going hungry till Union textiles minister Smriti Irani intervened to help them. Pinarayi Vijayan said the ‘Wayanad vs Amethi’ pitch was an effort to portray the state in poor light.
“We came across some reports about Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani’s intervention to supply food to some stranded workers from her constituency Amethi in Wayanad. After intense search, we spotted them in Karuvarakund in Malappuram. On inquiry, officials found enough grocery and other items in their dwelling units,” said Vijayan.
He also said that these workers refused cooked food from community kitchens, saying they will cook on their own. They accepted the grocery and other items.
“Unlike other parts, they will not go hungry in Kerala. We consider them as our guests. Some people are not happy with our work and they give undue publicity to such wrong information,” he said, adding that it was no time to score brownie points.
Wayanad is represented in the Lok Sabha by Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader who had lost the Amethi seat to BJP’s Smriti Irani. Gandhi had contested last year’s Lok Sabha election from two seats.
The chief minister waded into the controversy after reports that 40 starving workers from Amethi stranded in Wayanad got food after Smriti Irani’s intervention. It was reported that she sought help from Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan.
The Congress hit back, asserting that Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi too was flooded with complaints of food shortage in Amethi and had distributed food and other essentials in his former constituency.
Outlining the status of Covid-19 cases in Kerala, Vijayan said among the nine new cases that had tested positive, two were the members of Tablighi Jamaat who had returned from Delhi’s Nizamuddin after attending their annual event held at the markaz (centre) last month. He further said that 212 people linked to the Jamaat had been traced; 15 of them tested positive.
The chief minister also said that the state government will take an appropriate decision on lockdown after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The state has also set up help desks to help Keralites stranded abroad.
