Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar and Congress leader H K Patil sparred on Twitter over the number of people flying back to Bengaluru.
While the former minister claimed that as many as 22,000 passengers from Italy and other nations were arriving in Karnataka from the past two days, Sudhakar dismissed the same and advised Patil against spreading rumours as all international flight services remained suspended.
Earlier in the day, the Congress MLA tweeted: From the last two days until midnight today, 22,000 people from foreign nations, including Italy are arriving in Bengaluru. In order to be safe, the government needs to quarantine all of them by taking control of a few hotels in the city.
Responding to the same, Sudhakar said that the senior leader appeared to lack proper information. "All international flights are suspended from today. This is not the time for rumours, please co-operate," he said in a tweet.
In another tweet, he detailed the number of international arrivals at Bengaluru International Airport.
Patil retorted saying that his remarks were not due to lack of information. "In such a serious situation, one should speak the truth and be transparent. If you don't government records will have to be released," he tweeted.