New Delhi, Nov 19 (IANS): Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday sought support from all political parties here in the fight against Covid-19, requesting them not to do politics on the issue.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor made the appeal in the over one-hour long meeting with all the party leaders at Delhi Secretariat amid rising cases of the deadly disease in the national capital. The latest data shows the overall Covid tally as 5,03,084 including 7,943 deaths.
"We have sought the cooperation of all the political parties in the all-party meeting today. This is not the right time for politics, but to do service," Kejriwal said during a press conference after the all-party meet.
The Delhi Chief Minister further said that all parties have assured him that they would leave politics and serve the public.
Kejriwal said he has requested all the party leaders to get their workers involved in the distribution of masks at all public places. He said all the leaders were in agreement over the issue.
The Chief Minister said it was a fruitful discussion and all the politicians shared their valuable suggestions.
"All political parties supported our request to make Delhi Covid free by joining hands to safeguard all Delhiites by keeping aside their political differences."
The Chief Minister also raised the issue of 'Chhath puja' -- the ancient Hindu Vedic festival -- clarifying that his government is not against the festival, and that the restriction to not allow public assembly for the festival is only to avoid the spread of the virus amid grim situation in the city due to the pandemic, which has claimed 131 lives in the last 24 hours with 7,486 fresh cases.
He said a total of 7,461 beds are available in Delhi, including around 450 ICU beds and assured that the Central government is to provide the Delhi government more beds.
Kejriwal also thanked the doctors and the paramedical staff for their continuous support in fight against the pandemic.
"The Covid cases reached to almost 8,500 in Delhi recently, but the doctors and the Medical Superintendents played a major role in handling the peak situation and not a single patient has to wait on roads," he said.