Bhubaneswar: The BJD government in Odisha has come under severe attack by the opposition with BJP and Congress accusing it of ‘hiding’ the actual number of deaths due to Covid-19 in the state.
The opposition leaders claimed that the number of Covid deaths mentioned in the health department dashboard differed from the figures given by the government in the Assembly on Thursday.
The opposition attack came after Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Pramila Mallick’s written answer to a question by BJP legislator Naba Charan Majhi in the assembly.
As per the minister’s reply, over 20,000 people have died due to the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and so far in 2022.
Opposition chief whip Mohan Majhi of BJP claimed that the state government’s health department dashboard showed that a total of 9,204 people have lost their lives due to the pandemic in the state till December 1, this year, while 53 people died due to reasons other than COVID.
The different data showed that the government is trying to hide facts, Majhi claimed and alleged that there were gross irregularities in the Covid management for which so many people have died in the pandemic.
The BJP leader further claimed that the actual death toll due to Covid-19 could be more than the figure stated by the minister.
Speaking in same vain, Congress leader Santosh Singh Saluja alleged that the government has been “hiding” the Covid-19 death figure.
The minister, however, claimed that the government does not hide facts and said if the opposition parties have any evidence, they must place it before the people.
