India Today’s Rahul Kanwal had shared some infographics on social media claiming that the Telangana state does not have adequate number of PPEs needed for its healthcare professionals engaged in the battle against coronavirus.
Taking to Twitter, India Today managing editor Rahul Kanwal put up an infographic which listed out the number of PPEs available in coronavirus designated hospitals in India’s 12 most affected states. According to Kanwal, Maharashtra has the maximum number of PPEs at 1,22,133. The lowest, according to him was Telangana with 3,132 PPEs.
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) April 22, 2020
Inaccurate reporting by India Today, says KT Ramarao
Reacting on the same, Telangana minister KTR slammed India Today and Rahul Kanwal for their inaccurate reporting.
In a tweet, KTR asked Rahul Kanwal not to publish ‘nonsense and confusing data’ in these troubling times if he did not have accurate details. KT Ramarao asked whether India Today and Rahul Kanwal will apologise if he proved that Telangana had 100 times more PPEs than what the data projected by India Today revealed.
“Sorry but this is disgraceful journalism Rajdeep Sardesai,” tweeted the Telangana minister.
Rahul, If you don’t have accurate data, don’t publish nonsense & confuse people in these troubling times
— KTR (@KTRTRS) April 22, 2020
Will you & India today apologise if I prove that we have 100 times more PPEs than what you have projected here?
Sorry but this is disgraceful journalism @sardesairajdeep https://t.co/gPRHaQVVFU
Seconds later, he followed it up with another tweet giving the exact number. “For your information, we currently have more than 3.6 lakh PPEs with us already and 6 more lakh PPEs with be with us shortly”, he said again in the tweet.
“I hope you will have the decency to withdraw this fake & baseless graphic”, KTR concluded.
However, Rahul Kanwal soon responded back to the allegations made against India Today by KTR. Kanwal claimed that the data was indeed true as it was taken straight away from Union Health Ministry records. He also stated that they can update the numbers as soon as the real numbers reflected on government records.
Dear @KTRTRS reporters checked again. Data is taken from Union Health Ministry records of Designated Covid Hospitals in Telangana. One snapshot is attached. We can update the numbers as soon as they reflect on government records. Asking for Ashish to file a story on your data too pic.twitter.com/1nsHtZHgRK
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) April 22, 2020
More than 940 positive coronavirus cases have been reported in Telangana. 23 people have died due to the Chinese pandemic while 194 people have been cured of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus positive cases in India rose to 21,370 by Thursday, with 681 of them dead.
