MUMBAI: BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday alleged that the Shiv Sena-controlled civic body was under-reporting Covd-19 deaths and “manipulating” the infection rate in Mumbai. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was attributing the deaths of some Covid patients to other reasons and thus suppressing the real toll of the viral infection, he said in a letter to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
“The ‘death due to other reasons’ category has to be used only in exceptional cases, like when a Covid-19 patient commits suicide, dies in an accident, is murdered, is brain-dead or a fourth-stage cancer patient,” Fadnavis said.The BMC was classifying some Covid-19 deaths in this category in a dubious way, the former chief minister hinted.
Notably, the Supreme Court had recently praised the Mumbai civic body for managing the second wave of the pandemic efficiently. Fadnavis said the BMC reported deaths of 683 Covid patients under this “suspicious category” of death due to other reasons’ between February to April. This accounted for 39.4% of total 1,773 deaths reported in the city during the period, he claimed.