Bengaluru: The Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda rejected to not go into the institutional quarantine as mandate by the Government of Karnataka. The Minister who flew from New Delhi to Bengaluru said, the stipulation does not apply to those who hold certain responsible posts.

The Karnataka School Education Minister and spokesperson of State Covid- 19 S. Suresh Kumar said, he is exempted from quarantine as a Minister handling the Pharma sector. In an addendum to the SOP issued in the evening, the Government clarified that Union and State Ministers and officials on duty travelling across states are exempted from quarantine, as are health professionals. As per the Karnataka Government’s SOP, Delhi is among the six states and UTs with high incidents of Covid- 19 and travellers from these places has to mandatorily remain in institutional quarantine for a minimum of seven days.

Soon after arriving Union Minister was seeing being escorted out of the airport terminal and led to a private car that sped away. Later the Union Minister said to the media persons the guidelines and quarantine are applicable to all citizens but there are certain exemptions clauses, for those who hold certain responsible posts. The Union Minister said that his functioning as a Minister for Chemical and Fertilizers comes under essential services. He also said he oversee the Pharmaceutical sector and was monitoring the availability of the medicines in the Covid- 19 context.

The Minister also said that he was interacting with various Ministries and State Governments, his role has been classified among the exempted category and he need not undergo quarantine. It is not advisable to confine a Union Minister at home for 14 days or so when the need of the hour is his active participation in the war against the pandemic, he said. He also said he has undergone Covid- 19 test once every three days. He was tested Covid- 19 negative, and certificate was issued by AIIMS, Delhi. He also said he had downloaded Aarogya Setu app on his mobile and registered on it and on Seva Sindhu. Being a Union Minister he could have taken a special flight, but he made it a point to use a schedule flight for the sake of austerity.

He also said that it is his responsibility to ensure the supply of medicines to each corner of the country. If he doesn’t supply proper medicines across the country, Covid- 19 cases will raise double and triple, what happened in America and Italy will happen here also. He also said he is having a meeting with Karnataka Ministers at 4 pm today. What will happen if nurses, doctors and those supplying medicines are quarantined? He also said that don’t equate him with others.