New Delhi, Nov 27 (PTI) The AAP on Friday termed as "very unfortunate" the Union Home Ministry's remarks in its affidavit before in the Supreme Court blaming the Delhi government for the rise in COVID-19 cases here, saying the Centre has chosen to play "dirty politics" at this critical hour.

The Centre on Friday blamed the Delhi government for rising COVID-19 cases in the national capital and said that despite "repeated exhortations", it did not take steps to enhance testing capacity, particularly for RT-PCR, which remained static at around 20,000 tests for a long time.

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In a statement, the Aam Aadmi Party said the comments of the Centre about Delhi government in its affidavit before the Supreme Court are "very unfortunate".

"It is extremely unfortunate that the central government has chosen to play dirty politics in this critical hour.

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"The affidavit seems to have been drafted by a BJP spokesperson rather than by the Union government which is meant to work in collaboration with the states at the time of a pandemic. The affidavit is also factually incorrect."

The AAP claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised to provide 750 ICU beds within 72 hours during a meeting held on November 15.

"Till date, only 200 beds have been provided. We hope the Centre will provide the rest of the beds soon. The central government has deprived Delhi of all funds, provided to other state governments during this epidemic, on the flimsy premise that Delhi is a UT. Therefore, we hope that the central government will do something concrete for Delhiites rather than play the blame game," it said.

In its affidavit, filed before the top court, the Ministry of Home affairs (MHA), said "while there were regular advertisements on achievements of Delhi government, including on dengue prevention and control, no ads on COVID-appropriate behaviour were to be seen. The people, at large, were also not apprised about this through regular outreach measures."

It said, "That despite repeated exhortations in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, the Delhi government did not take steps to enhance testing capacity, particularly for RT-PCR, which remained static at around 20,000 RTPCR tests for a long time."

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah took the Centre's affidavit on record and observed that "things are going from bad to worse but no concrete steps are being taken.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)