Odisha: BJP demands white paper on Covid-19 deaths

BHUBANESWAR: BJP on Saturday demanded a White Paper on total Covid deaths in Odisha since March last year. The saffron party alleged underreporting of Covid deaths by the state government. BJD said the saffron party should refrain from politicising deaths.
BJP MLAs have written a letter to chief minister Naveen Patnaik on this matter. They accused the state government of furnishing wrong and misleading information about the number of deaths due to Covid-19. “Because of this misleading data, children who have lost their parents to Covid-19 will be deprived of the schemes announced by the state government and the Centre,” said the MLAs.
Opposition chief whip Mohan Charan Majhi said people can compare the death figure of crematoriums with government’s death data daily to find out the huge difference in Covid death numbers. “Hiding truth is a crime and dangerous too. We want a White Paper on this to get the actual information,” he added.
He also demanded the government to provide compensation to the next of kin of the Covid deceased according to the Disaster Management Act 2005. “As the first state of the country, Odisha had declared Covid-19 as ‘disaster’ on March 13 last year. According to the law, families of the deceased should get an ex-gratia amount,” he added.
BJP further alleged that the state government is not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme in Odisha due to its political motive. Odisha people are deprived of this scheme because of the ruling BJD’s politics. The MLAs also alleged that the health infrastructure in the state is in shambles, said Majhi.
BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb said BJP is trying to politicise the issue of Covid-19 management of Odisha government. “They (BJP leaders) should feel ashamed of themselves after witnessing the style of Covid management of the Centre during the second wave. They should introspect before pointing fingers at the Covid management style of the Odisha government,” he added.
Deb said the BJP leaders here know about the floating bodies in the Ganga and burial of bodies on its bank. They also know electioneering in West Bengal during the peak of a pandemic. They should speak about Kumbh Mela and fake Covid tests. “Before questioning us, they should ask their own conscience what is the condition of the country today? Our government has received accolades from national and international organisations for well management of Covid-19,” he added.
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