Kolkata: West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday mounted a sharp attack on Mamata government for concealing the COVID-19 data after a discrepancy emerged in the number of COVID cases in the state in two official communications of the state government.
"Give up Covid-19 data cover-up operation’ @MamataOfficial and share it transparently," West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said in a tweet. Dhankhar tweeted two official communications of the West Bengal government to highlight the discrepancy in the number of COVID-19 cases in the state.
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Give up ‘ Covid-19 data cover up operation’ @MamataOfficial and share it transparently.
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 2, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Health bulletin 30/4 No of Active Covid cases 572. No health bulletin on May 1 !!
Information to central Government No of cases 931. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/LOUIggYqYa
">Give up ‘ Covid-19 data cover up operation’ @MamataOfficial and share it transparently.
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 2, 2020
Health bulletin 30/4 No of Active Covid cases 572. No health bulletin on May 1 !!
Information to central Government No of cases 931. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/LOUIggYqYaGive up ‘ Covid-19 data cover up operation’ @MamataOfficial and share it transparently.
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 2, 2020
Health bulletin 30/4 No of Active Covid cases 572. No health bulletin on May 1 !!
Information to central Government No of cases 931. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/LOUIggYqYa
He tweeted a copy of a letter written by Vivek Kumar, principal secretary in the health and family welfare department of West Bengal to Preeti Sudan, secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare at the Centre.
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Gap between 572 and 931 not reconcilable even if recovered/dead r considered
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 2, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Coordination lack awful when people r suffering untold miseries
For way forward @MamataOfficial withdraw ‘political parties r vultures in wait of dead bodies’ and take all on board.(2/2)
">Gap between 572 and 931 not reconcilable even if recovered/dead r considered
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 2, 2020
Coordination lack awful when people r suffering untold miseries
For way forward @MamataOfficial withdraw ‘political parties r vultures in wait of dead bodies’ and take all on board.(2/2)Gap between 572 and 931 not reconcilable even if recovered/dead r considered
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) May 2, 2020
Coordination lack awful when people r suffering untold miseries
For way forward @MamataOfficial withdraw ‘political parties r vultures in wait of dead bodies’ and take all on board.(2/2)
In Kumar’s letter, a copy of which was shared by Governor Dhankhar on his twitter handle, the number of COVID-19 cases in the state adds up to 931 cases as on April 30; 821 Covid cases in 4 districts in the Red zone, and 110 cases in 11 districts of the state in the orange zone.
Whereas, as per the health bulletin issued by the state government on the same day (April 30), the number of active cases as on April 30, under the header of ‘cumulative till 30.04.2020’ was 572.
The letter also mentioned the cured cases at 139 and the number of total deaths in the state due to COVID-19 at 33.
It takes the number of total cases in the state to just 744 as against 931 COVID cases as per Kumar’s letter to Preeti Sudan.
“Health bulletin 30/4, No of Active COVID cases 572. No health bulletin on May 1!! Information to central Government No of cases 931.”
It gave enough ammunition to the governor to highlight the lack of coordination between the Centre and the state government. The relationship between the two has not been cordial, as both of them have blamed each other for undermining the constitutional provisions.
“Gap between 572 and 931 not reconcilable even if recovered/dead r considered,” Dhankhar said in his tweet.
He also blamed the lack of coordination between the Centre and the state government for the suffering of the people of the state.
“Coordination lacks awful when people are suffering untold miseries,” he said in a tweet.
He also asked Mamata Banerjee to withdraw his statement where she likened political parties to vultures in wait for dead bodies.
It prompted the chief minister to blame the governor for exceeding his constitutional functions and causing interference in her administration.
In her riposte, Mamata Banerjee asked the governor not to create a dual power centre in the state.
“The cabinet of the state, led by the Chief Minister, exercises all executive functions in the state, with the CM being the executive head of the state. In all this, the governor was never intended to and plays absolutely no role,” she said in a letter to the Governor.
Fight over Red Zone districts brought the discrepancy to the fore
The discrepancy in the official data of the West Bengal government came to the fore due to a letter written by Vivek Kumar, the principal secretary in the department of health and family welfare of West Bengal to Union health and family welfare secretary Preeti Sudan.
In his letter, Vivek Kumar said the Central government has erroneously included 10 districts of the state in the Red zone.
“With regard to the presentation made in the Cabinet Secretary's Video Conference with the States on 30th April 2020 at 3.00 pm, as many as ten districts of West Bengal were shown in the Red Zone,” said Kumar.
“This is an erroneous assessment,” Kumar wrote in his letter to the Centre.
“Based on the current parameters of Government of India for categorization of areas for COVID-19, the districts in the Red Zone are only four: Kolkata, Howrah, North-24 Paraganas and Purba Medinipur,” Kumar said in the letter.
Kumar also gave the district wise break up of COVID cases in the state that revealed the discrepancy between the number of Covid cases in his letter and the number of cases in the health bulletin issued by the state government the same day.
According to Kumar's letter, 8 districts in the state were in the Green zone as no case was reported from there.
These are Alipurdar, Cooch Bihar, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia, and Jhargram.
In his letter, Kumar stated that 11 districts were in Orange Zone as these reported last cases between April 2 to April 28. These are Kalimpong (7 cases), Jalpaiguri (5), Murshidabad (2), Nadia (8), Darjeeling (6), Purba Bardaman (2), Paschim Bardaman (10), Paschim Medinipur (12), Malda (2), Hooghly (31) and South 24 Parganas (25).
He said that four districts were in Red zone, Kolkata (489 cases), Howrah (176), North 24 Parganas (122 cases) and Purba Medinipur (34 cases).
These four Red zone districts alone account for 821 cases as on April 30 as against the total 572 active cases, 139 cured cases and 30 deaths mentioned in the state government’s health bulletin issued the same day, taking the total number to just 744.
It also prompted Governor Dhankhar to blame the Mamata government for concealing the data following as the government did not publish a health bulletin on May 1.
Mamata govt changes the format of health bulletins following the controversy
Following the criticism by Governor Dhankhar, the West Bengal government published the health bulletin for two days (May 1 & 2) on Saturday evening.
The Mamata government, however, changed the format of its health bulletins issued in this month and instead of giving cumulative data as on a specific date, it shared the number of new cases reported on May 1 and May 2.
According to the health bulletin issued on May 1, 57 new COVID cases were reported in the state on Friday, while 15 patients were discharged and 8 patients died due to the coronavirus.
Similarly, on May 2, 70 new COVID cases were reported in the state while 45 patients were discharged and seven people died due to the virus.
Also Read: COVID-19: WB Pollution Control Board preparing report on bio-medical waste disposal
