PATNA: The CPI-ML (Liberation) has claimed to have traced out 6,420 unreported deaths with symptoms of COVID-19 from across 1,693 villages in 9 Bihar districts and another 780 deaths without symptoms in a survey by its party cadres.
The CPI-ML (Liberation) alleged that the state government in Bihar has been showing eaths due to Covid-19 during the second phase 20 times lesser than the actual numbers. After submitting a copy of survey- finding to the speaker of Bihar Legislative Assembly on Thursday, state general secretary of CPI-ML Kunal released the provisional unreported death figures from Covid -19 to the media.
“The state government is under reporting the Covid death toll at least by 20 times. This is absolute injustice to the families, who have lost their members. We have carried out a thorough survey across 1,693 villages in 9 districts and come out with a provisional figure”, Kunal claimed.
As per the official data, 9,639 deaths have happened due to the pandemic in Bihar till date. If the CPI-ML tally is added in the official figure, the death toll will rise well above 16,000-mark.
Kunal further added that 6,420 deaths with symptoms of Covid-19 were collected from Bhojpur, Patna (Rural), Rohtas, Siwan, Darbhanga, West Champaran, Arwal, Kaimur and Aurangabad.
“The highest number of 1,978 deaths with symptoms of Covid-19 have been found from Bhojpur’s 132 panchayats followed by 1048 from Patna Rural’s 122 Panchayats, 1043 from Siwan’s 80 Panchayats, 696 from Arwal’s 66 Panchayats and others”, he added.
Quoting details, he said that the dependents of only 126 out of 6420, who had died with symptoms akin to Covid-19, have applied for compensation of Rs 4 lakh from the state government.
“Data collection on the unreported cases of Covid-19 deaths is still going on across 29 districts of state. We will soon after the collection of data on deaths will share the total finding from all districts “, Kunal claimed, adding that the majority of them with symptoms died without being tested.
The data on deaths with symptoms of Covid were collected by the party from April 1, 2021 to May 31. The villages covered by the surveying members of CPI ML constitute 3.75 percent of the total 45,103 villages of Bihar.
“We think the actual death tally after proper collection of unreported cases may go up to not less than 2 lakh”, he said. “Our findings expose the lies being continuously told by the government on Covid deaths. If the government and all of us are not serious about this, then how will we be able to deal with the challenges of the possible third wave? We want to tell the government that instead of hiding the data, it should start accepting the truth”, Kunal said.