BHUBANESWAR: BJD vice-president and Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik on Thursday created a flutter in political circles by questioning the Covid management of the State government and targeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for suppressing the actual number of deaths in Odisha due to the pandemic.
In a signed editorial, ‘Ama Ghara Ra Halchal’ in the vernacular daily ‘Sambad’ edited by him, the BJD MLA asked the Chief Minister to come clean by releasing a White Paper on the issue. Launching a scathing attack on the government, Patnaik said the data regarding Covid deaths has been fudged. “People of the State will love him (the Chief Minister) more if he displays courage by releasing the White Paper,” he added.
Patnaik said had the government revealed the actual number of deaths, there would not have been much loss of face. The number of deaths which is coming to the fore now is still less than the national average, he said, adding that the desperate race to be on the top and the attempt to match past achievements seem to have resulted in such data fudging.
The shortcomings came to the fore after the scheme for Covid orphans was announced by the government, he said, adding, in the present scenario what the left hand of the administration is doing is not known to its right hand. The BJD vice-president also found fault in the Chief Minister’s style of functioning and his preference to work with a small coterie of politicians and officers which he said has been further limited due to the pandemic. Stating that the Chief Minister’s style of functioning is different from other political leaders, Patnaik said he does not like to be with party workers and people much.
“Whether Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is aware of it or not, we do not know for sure,” he said in the editorial and added that media has the responsibility of putting the facts before him. “The practice of listening to harsh truth and criticism makes a person more transparent and brave,” he stated .
State BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan thanked the BJD leader for raising the issue. During the peak of the pandemic, around 250 bodies were being cremated everyday but the State government was sticking to its daily mortality count of 30 to 40, he said.
Responding to the allegations, government chief whip Pramila Mallick said that the State government has not concealed any Covid-related deaths and dared those pointing fingers at the government to reveal how and where the data has been concealed.