Rajasthan Governor expresses concern over growing coronavirus infections in state

Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra on Sunday expressed concern over growing coronavirus infections in the state, and said the number of active cases has tripled since July 1.

According to a Raj Bhawan statement, the governor directed that serious efforts should be made to control the spread of the disease. He noted that active COVID-19 cases have tripled in the state since July 1.

The governor's remarks come in the backdrop of a tug of war with the state government over convening of an Assembly session.

The Congress government, which is facing a political crisis after a rebellion by the now sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs, has been pushing for an Assembly session.

The party on Sunday accused the governor of resorting to the "worst kind of obstruction of democracy" by raising "superficial and motivated" queries on the Ashok Gehlot government's demand for convening a session of the Assembly.

The state government has sent a revised proposal to the governor to call a session of the Assembly on July 31 after he had sought six-point clarifications on its earlier proposal.

Meanwhile, the governor met Chief Secretary Rajeeva Swarup and Director General of Police (DGP) Bhupendra Yadav, who informed him about the security arrangements made for safeguarding the Raj Bhawan in view of a protest planned by the Congress on Monday.

The Congress has announced that it will stage protests in front of Raj Bhawans across the country against what it called "misuse of powers" of governors to topple governments headed by opposition parties.

On Sunday, Rajasthan reported 611 new cases of COVID-19 pushing the state's infection tally to 35,909. The number of active cases stood at 9,935, according to the health department.

On July 1, the state had an active caseload of 3,317.

So far, 621 people have died of the disease in the state.