The West Bengal government’s audit team on Friday linked 57 deaths in the state because to COVID-19, out of which 39 had co-morbidities, NDTV reported.
The audit panel however said that only 18 of those deaths were directly linked to COVID-19.
The panel gave this information to an inter ministerial central team sent by the Union government to oversee the situation in the state amid reports of under-testing, and under-reporting of deaths.
Meanwhile, chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said that the number of deaths in Bengal rose to 18, from 15 on Thursday. This means that the state is not counting the deaths of COVID-19 patients as COVID-19 deaths if they have co-morbidities.
The 5-member panel had been set up by Bengal earlier this month by the Mamata Banerjee government.
This came on a day when amid political turmoil in West Bengal, with the TMC government locking horns with the Centre over allegations of low testing and fudging of coronavirus numbers in the state.
While the state chief secretary Rajiva Sinha had said on Thursday the state had nothing more to show to the team sent by the Narendra Modi government, on Friday no state representatives met the team.
Meanwhile, chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a letter to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, reminded him that she was the elected representative of the state.
The state on Thursday said that Kolkata remained a challenge with increasing number of cases, while they have been able to control the situation is Howrah and East Medinipur.
No more help from Mamata?
A day after the team sent by the Union government was taken around Kolkata for overseeing the situation in the city’s COVID-19 hospitals, the team has not been met by state representatives on Friday.
Anandabzar Patrika reported sources as saying that the team has been waiting for people from the state government to come and meet them since Friday morning.
The report said that there was no word from the Mamata government in whether anyone will actually go and meet the Central team.
Banerjee was furious that the Narendra Modi government had sent two teams — on in Kolkata and the other in Siliguri — to take stock of the situation in the state.
These teams were made to wait from Monday to Wednesday, before being taken around by the state representative on Thursday. They were taken to the COVID centres in Rajarhat and MR Bangur hospital and other quarantine hotspots in Kolkata.
On Thursday evening state chief secretary Rajiva Sinha had said the state had nothing more to show them. “We have cooperated in all ways possible. They wanted to go to hotspot areas, we took them there. They wanted a presentation by the health secretary, that was also done. All necessary data has been provided to them. We have nothing more to show after this, if they want an email with more data, we can send that also,” Sinha was quoted by Anandabzar Patrika as saying.
Mamata vs Dhankar
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar exchanged a war of words on Thursday with Banerjee reminding Dhankar that she was the elected representative of the state.
Banerjee accused Dhankhar of repeatedly interfering in the functioning of the state administration, and Dhankar said the state could not be governed as a personal fiefdom.
In a letter to Dhankar, Banerjee said Dhankhar had forgotten that she was the “elected chief minister of a proud Indian state” whereas he is a nominated governor.
“You have to judge for yourself, whether your direct attacks on me, my ministers, officers, your tone, tenor and language, which in mildest words of extreme moderation, deserve to be characterized as parliamentary, your holding press conferences against the state government of which you are a governor, your repeated and consistent interference in the administration of my ministries make it clear as to who has flagrantly transgressed constitutional dharma...,” she wrote.
Banerjee claimed the governor’s conduct does not conform to even “basic norms of decency” between constitutional functionaries.
Dhankhar responded with a tweet that he called “outrageously factually wrong and constitutionally infirm”.
Letter by doctors
Meanwhile, in an open letter to Banerjee, Bengali doctors who don’t live in Bengal urged for the state to conduct more tests.
“In the last week and a half, we have come across or watched with growing concerns, reports on the COVID-19 situation in West Bengal. There are two specific issues that are most disturbing to us: 1) the gross under-testing in West Bengal, and 2) the misreporting of data on the cause of death in COVID-19 patients,” NDTV quoted the letter as saying.
The letter said that not reporting COVID-19 as an underlying cause of death was a falsification of data. The letter urged Banerjee for West Bengal to increase testing and to take responsibility for “accurate and consistent reporting of COVID-19 data”.
According to the figures provided by the state government 7990 people have been tested in the state for COVID-19.
(With PTI inputs)