India under PM Modi has fought most successful battle against coronavirus in the world:Amit Shah

India under theleadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fought the mostsuccessful battle against coronavirus in the world, and withthe beginning of the vaccination drive, the country has takenthe fight against the pandemic to a final stage,Union HomeMinister Amit Shah said on Saturday.

''The whole world for about a year has been fightingagainst corona, many people have lost lives.This was probablyone of the toughest fights that humanity has fought, usingknowledge, innovations and mutual cooperation,'' Shah said.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone of a newbattalion campus of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) here, he saidhe was happy to state that India under Prime Minister Modi'sleadership has fought the most successful battle againstCOVID-19 in the world.

Noting that during the initial days of the outbreak,some experts had expressed worry about a few countries,including India, on how they will manage with a hugepopulation and not so prepared health infrastructure, Shahsaid there was only one lab in the country that couldundertake testing for the infection; ''Today we have more than2,000.'' The main difference in the fight that India foughtagainst the virus compared to the rest of the world is thatthe entire population of the country fought it with unity, hesaid, as he claimed that India has less fatality rate and highrecovery rate.

''Today with two vaccines produced in the country, wehave taken the fight against corona to the final stage,'' hesaid, even as he defended the decision to administer thevaccine to frontline warriors, and hit out those spreadingmisinformation on it.

Earlier, Shah laid the foundation stone of a newbattalion campus of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) nearBhadravathi in Shivamogga district in the presence of ChiefMinister B S Yediyurappa, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, amongothers.

The Karnataka government has provided a 50.29-acre landfor the headquarters of the 97th battalion of the RAF, theblue dungaree wearing special anti-riots wing of the CentralReserve Police Force.

The campus will have a hospital, a Kendriya Vidyalaya,family quarters for troops, administrative building, familywelfare centre, sports facilities including a stadium andswimming pool.

A total of 1,270 troops of the newly raised 97th RAFbattalion, including 106 women personnel, will be based here,officials said.

The battalion will have jurisdiction over a number ofdistricts in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Puducherryfor deployment by Centre to deal with any communal incidents,protests, riots or events that involve huge congregations,they said.

Shah thanked Yediyurappa for taking the initiative andgiving the land for a new battalion campus of RAF that iscoming up at a cost of Rs 230 crore.

He assured the people of Bhadravathi that the centralschool and the stadiums that will come up will be designed insuch a way that local people can also use the facilities.