Lucknow, Apr 22 (IANS): CPI national secretary Atul Anjaan has said that the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh would prove be a super spreader of Covid virus.

"All safety protocols and Covid guidelines have been thrown aside in these elections and the state administration is solely responsible for the chaos prevailing in Uttar Pradesh during the Covid times," he said while talking to IANS.

He slammed the state government for deploying the entire state machinery in the panchayat elections.

Anjaan said the state government was unprepared despite warnings from the ICMR and IMA about the severity of the second wave.

"Had the state government retained the infrastructure built during the first wave, the situation would have been not so grim today. People are dying due to shortage of ventilators and oxygen and are being forced to buy oxygen and medicines in black market," he stated.

The CPI secretary said even UP cabinet minister Brajesh Pathak had expressed anguish over the prevailing situation in the state. He had written to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, highlighting the case of historian Yogesh Praveen, who died due to delay in getting an ambulance for the hospital.

He also cited the example of a former judge who could not arrange medical care for his wife despite desperate phone calls to the CMO office and other authorities in Lucknow. His wife later died due to lack of treatment and nobody came forward to help him out, Anjaan said.

The CPI leader said that even the president of the UP IAS officers' association, Deepak Trivedi, had a tough time in getting an ambulance and bed in SGPGI which showcased the state of affairs in the state.