By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh of hiding data about COVID deaths and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on moral grounds or his dismissal by the governor.
Addressing a joint press conference, Congress leaders Supriya Shrinate and Aradhana Mishra alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government has proved to be a “complete failure in COVID management and is totally insensitive to the pain of the common people”.
“Such a government which cannot provide health facilities and honour to those dead has no right to sit in UP Vidhan Sabha,” said CLP leader Mishra.
“If the chief minister has little sensitivity left, he should resign immediately, else the governor should dismiss the government immediately,” she told reporters, citing some strong words from the Allahabad High Court against the government.
There is need for a government that provides security and health to the people of the state, she said.
“This government has focussed its energies on denial of facts, destroying of evidence and data manipulation. Had it focussed its energies in fighting COVID instead, the state would not have been pushed to this situation,” Mishra said.
Shrinate claimed in Lucknow alone, a large number of death certificates have been issued by the authorities in the last few months which are far above the reported deaths.
She said while official data shows 2,268 deaths in Lucknow in the past year, from April 1 to May 15 this year, a total of 7,890 death certificates were issued, while another 5,970 death certificates were issued from February 15 to April 30.
“Why are deaths being hidden? This has put both the central and Uttar Pradesh government in the dock. The people want to know why is this being done and who is responsible for it,” Shrinate said.
The Congress has been criticising the Uttar Pradesh government over COVID deaths and alleging that dead bodies are found floating in the river Ganga.
It has also accused the Centre and some BJP-ruled states including Gujarat of under reporting data pertaining to COVID deaths.
Meanwhile, the state government on Tuesday issued fresh directives allowing a maximum of 25 people to take part in wedding and other functions in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to district officials, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said permission will be given for participation of maximum 25 invitees at a time for wedding and other functions, both in open and enclosed places.
Awasthi said that invitees will have to comply with COVID-appropriate protocols, with the use of masks and santisers.
Social distancing will have to be strictly followed while making seating arrangements, besides making proper arrangements for sanitation and cleanliness of toilets at the venue where the function is being organised, he said in the order.
The responsibility of complying with these conditions will be that of organisers, the order said.
In an order issued on April 20, a maximum of 50 people were allowed in enclosed places and 100 in open places for weddings while following all necessary precautions relating to COVID.
The state is now witnessing a slide in fresh cases with 8,737 new cases being reported on Tuesday taking the statewide tally to 16,37,663, a senior government official said.
The state reported 255 fresh deaths taking the COVID-19 toll to 18,072, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.
The number of active cases has also come down to 1,36,342, he said, while adding that a total of 14,83,249 people have so far recovered and have been discharged from hospitals bringing the recovery rate in the state to 90.60 per cent.
Among the active cases, 99,891 are in home isolation, he said.
Of the fresh deaths recorded in the state, Meerut reported the highest with 20 deaths followed by Lucknow 19 and Kanpur Nagar 12, Saharanpur 11 and Agra 10 along with others, a health department bulletin said.
The highest number of fresh cases have been reported from Lucknow with 502 followed by Meerut 453, Saharanpur 374, Gautam Buddh Nagar 345, Muzaffarnagar 337, Varanasi 322, Gorakhpur 295, Ghaziabad 289 and Baghpat 238 among others, the bulletin said.
On Monday, over 2.79 lakh tests were performed, Prasad said, adding that UP has become the first state to conduct over 4.50 crore tests with the latest addition.
The senior official said continuous work is on to check the spread of the virus in the rural areas with the ‘gram nigrani samitis’ actively working in this direction.
“The teams of the department have reached 89,512 village so far and infection has been detected in 21,742 villages. Almost 68 per cent villages have been found safe of the virus,” Prasad claimed.
The cases have been on a downward trajectory over the past 18 days after recording a peak in the state on April 30 while the positivity rate has also come down, Prasad added.
