Remdesivir row: Shiv Sena alleges bid to disturb law and health order in Maharashtra

The Shiv Sena on Monday slammed BJP leaders Devendra Fadnavis and Pravin Darekar for objecting to Mumbai polices grilling of a pharma firms top executive over alleged stocking of Remdesivir vials and wondered if there was a conspiracy to disturb the law and health orderAn editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana accused the BJP of having a clear agenda that the Maharashtra government should fail in handling the COVID19 situation and charged it with making persistent efforts in that direction with the help of the CentreIt said the Maharashtra government and the opposition should be unanimous at least on the issue of saving lives of people and no one should seek political mileage out of pyres of people dying for want of the drug which is in high demand for treating COVID19 patientsMumbai police questioned a pharma company director on Saturday following information that thousands of vials of Remdesivir were to be flown out of the country despite a ban on its exportOn learning that the company director was being questioned former chief minister Fadnavis and another state BJP leader Darekar had rushed to the police station They said the BJP was reaching out to pharma companies due to the shortage of Remdesivir in the stateFadnavis said it was their sincere attempt to get Remdesivar for Maharashtra However the editorial in Saamana on Monday alleged that politics is being played on the issue of supply of oxygen and Remdesivir injections for treating COVID19 patientsIt said the Maharashtra government was not getting the Remdesivir injections but BJP leaders were purchasing them unilaterally from pharma companies It never happened in Maharashtra earlier that the Leader of Opposition advocated for a pharma company official instead of the state the Sena saidIsnt there a conspiracy to trouble the law and health order it asked The Sena claimed it is a crime on part of the companies to make available stock of the injections to the BJP unilaterally It also questioned the BJPs criticism of the government after the police exposed hoarding and black marketing by the companiesWhat can the opposition leaders in the Assembly and Council rushing to a police station midnight to seek release of a pharma company official be called the Shiv Sena askedThe COVID19 patients in Maharashtra and the country are feeling suffocated due to lack of oxygen and funeral pyres have been lit for the want of Remdesivir it saidNobody should heat up their political pans on these pyres The government and the opposition should behave unanimously at least on this issue the Marathi daily saidUnion minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said Maharashtra has so far received the highest quantity of oxygen in India and the Centre is in regular touch with state governments to assess their needsReferring to it the Shiv Sena asked whether the Centre was doing any favour to Maharashtra by giving the highest quantity of oxygen Maharashtra is making the highest contribution to the Centres coffers the editorial said adding that Delhi the central government will need oxygen support if this supply of tax payment is stopped from the statewhen Maharashtra is facing a crisis the Union minister is troubling Maharashtra by giving an account of how much has been given and taken to the state This is sort of staining the humanity it allegedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever