A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court on Friday seeking its direction to the Central government and all the state governments to fix the maximum rate for the RT-PCR test for COVID-19 to Rs 400 uniformly across India.
Petitioner lawyer Ajay Agrawal claimed that the Apex Court should pass appropriate directions and orders to the Central government and all states to fix the RT-PCR test at Rs 400 uniformly across the country.
The petition filed by Agrawal sought a direction to the governments to fix the maximum rate for the RT-PCR (real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test to Rs 400 uniformly across the country, instead of Rs 900 to Rs 2800 as fixed by different state governments, Union Territories and NCT of Delhi.
"There is a big loot by laboratories and they are minting money to the tune of crores and crores of rupees. The margin of profit is so high as it is as high as 1400 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and 1200 per cent in Delhi," Agrawal stated.
"The matter is concerned with 135 crore citizens of the country as everybody worried with the coronavirus and forced to get their test done at this exorbitant price," read the plea.
India's COVID-19 tally crossed the 87-lakh mark on Friday with 44,879 new cases in the last 24 hours, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The total number of positive coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 87,28,795, including 4,84,547 active cases and 1,28,668 deaths.
( With inputs from ANI )
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