By Navneet Mishra
New Delhi, May 2 (IANS): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Darjeeling Raju Bisht has accused the Mamata Banerjee government of hiding the real figures of corona infected patients. He even went on to say that the police is secretly burning the bodies at night which is inciting anger among the people of the state.
The 34-year-old BJP MP told IANS that a few days ago the police were burning the corpse of a suspected corona patient in Alipurduar district at midnight. This led to anger among the people who then clashed with the police. The public set police cars afire and many policemen were injured in the incident.
Bisht said, "Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has set up a committee of five doctors in Kolkata to hide the figures of COVID-19 patients. This committee decides who died from corona and who did not. If a person in Darjeeling, which is 600 km away from Kolkata, dies of corona, then how can the doctors in Kolkata decide whether he died of corona without even testing."
The BJP MP said people of a certain community have been allowed to ease restrictions during the lockdown. The situation is worsening here as people are not following the lockdown. The people in the government are even threatening the media for showing the right news.
The BJP MP said though this is not the right time for accusations but the situation in West Bengal is so bad that if we don't tell the truth then it is like tolerating crime. The health system in the state has gone from bad to worse. Hospitals don't have infrastructure. The Centre has already given 30,000 PPE kits, 1.40 lakh masks and Rs 126 crore. 32.50 lakh hydrooxychloroquine tablets have also been provided to the state government. Despite all this, the state government is not fighting the COVID-19 pandemic properly.
He said, "Seeing the failure of the state government, I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on April 6 to send central teams for monitoring. After that, two teams reached Kolkata and North Bengal after which the tests have increased. The situation has improved after the monitoring by the teams which reached here from the Centre. An ICMR-certified corona testing lab at North Bengal Medical College has now opened through the efforts of the Union government."
Alleging a scam in the distribution of ration, Bisht said the Central government had provided full rations for the month of April and half rations for the month of May but till now the ration allocated for April has not been distributed. The ruling party cadre is distributing the ration while the distribution should not be a political matter.
He charged that the BJP MPs have been kept under house arrest.