The senior leaders and workers of Gujarat Congress took to streets in different cities on Monday the second day of their nine-day protests against BJP, as they observed Save Healthcare Day, criticising the state government’s alleged mismanagement during the Covid pandemic.

Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Chavda, leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani, former president Arjun Modhwadia and other senior leaders staged a sit-in outside government hospitals in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Valsad, Vadodara, Morbi, Amreli and other cities of Gujarat on Monday.

The Congress had announced that they will stage protest demonstrations against the state government from August 1 to August 9 on different issues during the period when the government decided to celebrate their five years of governance.

“The state government wants to mislead the people in the name of celebrations. For the past 25 years, the BJP government has been in power… then why was there no celebrations during the time of Narendra Modi and Anandiben Patel as CMs.

What are they celebrating,” said Amit Chavda, moments before he was detained by the police for protesting outside the Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar.

“More than two lakh people have died due to Covid, the business sector is in shambles, farmers are in trouble, over 40 lakh youth in Gujarat are unemployed. People have been harassed in the name of fine for masks,they have ran from pillar to post for medicines, oxygen and hospital beds.

This government is working on the lines of the British empire where power vested with the police and administration is misused to suppress voices,” added Chavda.

“Due to the negligent and irresponsible government, we have seen long queues of ambulances outside hospitals, patients suffering from lack of beds, people dying due to lack of oxygen, black-marketing of medicines to the extent that an injection costing Rs 1,000 was sold at Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 and there was token system generated even for using crematoriums.

In the past 25 years of misrule of BJP, there has been commercialisation of hospitals, lack of medical staff and criminal negligence in the health sector,” said Dhanani at a protest event in Valsad.

In Amreli, Congress workers were seen protesting on the street while wearing oxygen masks.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party Gujarat also criticised the state government for lack of hospitals in Gujarat even as country preps up for an anticipated third wave.

“Health wise, Gujarat is divided into six zones of Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Gandhinagar and Bhavnagar. Among them, in Gandhinagar zone, only two districts have civil hospitals while four districts don’t. In Bhavnagar, only three out of five districts have civil hospitals, in Rajkot only four out of six districts have hospitals while in Surat only three out of five districts have hospitals.

There were 363 Community Healthcare Centres (CHC) in 2018 in Gujarat while today there are only 348. Out of the 704 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in rural areas, there is not a single one that is run 24/7,” read a statement from AAP Gujarat.

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