Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 7 (IANS): The Congress-led UDF, the principal opposition party in Kerala, on Wednesday warned the Pinarayi Vijayan government that if they do not give the correct figure of all those who have passed away due to Covid, they will consider legal options.

Party legislator and also working president of the state Congress party T. Siddique said, all this has happened because former State Health Minister K.K. Shailaja wanted to get glory for tackling the Covid pandemic effectively.

"Vijayan should come clean on this and a high level committee should be appointed to probe what has actually happened, if not, they will be forced to take legal steps," said Siddique.

For long, the Congress led opposition inside and outside the state Assembly, has been crying foul in the manner in which the Kerala government has been allegedly fudging the number of Covid deaths.

Since the pandemic surfaced, so far Kerala has recorded 13,960 Covid deaths, which the Congress led opposition has been time and again stating that it was grossly understated and they suspect the actual deaths that have occurred due to the Covid might be easily over 30,000.

This issue has now been taken up seriously because the apex court has ruled of giving a compensation to all those who died of Covid.

While new State Health Minister Veena George has gone on record to state that they are ready to re-visit the death figures and all what the Kerala government has done is to follow the WHO/ICMR guidelines while classifying the Covid deaths.

But surprisingly, ever since this issue surfaced, Vijayan has not spoken a word and has not held any Covid related press meeting, which was a regular feature for well over a year.