UP Govt hiding Covid deaths, no right to remain in power: Congress

Congress Party slammed the Uttar Pradesh government over concealing the data of deaths caused by Covid-19 in the state, saying that it has no right to remain in power.

New Delhi: Congress Party on Tuesday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government over concealing the data of deaths caused by Covid-19 in the state, saying that it has no right to remain in power.

While addressing a virtual press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, "As per the Government's official data, 2,268 people have died in Lucknow till date due to Covid-19. But 13,000 death certificates have been issued in the last three months."

She further added, "Between April 1 to May 15 this year, in the span of 45 days, 7,890 death certificates have been issued while between February 15 and March 31 in the span of two months 5,970 death certificates were issued."This comes days after Congress' senior leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram questioned the Gujarat and Central Government after a Gujarati Newspaper report revealed that Gujarat Government has issued 1.23 lakh death certificates between March 1 and May 10, while the Government data admits only 4,218 COVID-related deaths.Congress Legislature Party leader in Uttar Pradesh Aradhana Mishra slammed the state government, saying, "This Government works on three Ds which stands for denial of facts, destroying of evidence and data manipulation, instead of helping people amid Covid crisis."Congress also questioned the UP Government's decision of authorizing the Chief Ministerial Office (CMO) to issue death certificates in the state, which actually pertains to the Municipal Corporation.

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"It is a clear attempt by the government to hide the actual death figures. If this Government cannot provide proper medical facilities to the Covid patients, it should at least have proper management for cremation," Mishra asserted.

Alleging that UP Government has completely failed in managing the Covid crisis, she demanded, "This Government has no right to remain in power. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should immediately resign taking the moral responsibility of this crisis in the state."

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On another issue, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate slammed BJP for spreading a "toolkit" on social media, saying, "There is no such document as shown by the BJP spokesperson. It is a completely fractious, concocted, forged document. We expected this from the unnamed, anonymous troll army of BJP. We never expected that a national spokesperson of BJP, or ministers or MPs tweeting this, will resort to blatant lies."

This comes soon after Sambit Patra tweeted a document claiming that Congress has instructed its social media volunteers to 'destroy' the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by using the term "Modi strain" instead of "Indian strain" on social media.

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