A survey conducted by the CPI-ML in Bihar on Covid-19 deaths has indicated the toll could be 18 to 20 times higher than the figures made public by the state government.
The party is planning to submit its report to Patna High Court and also table it in the Assembly along with video and documented evidence.
A CPI-ML team, including its politburo member Kavita Krishnan and several others, toured 10 out of 38 districts to ascertain the number of fatalities during the second wave of the pandemic in April and May this year.
“We focused on the districts where we have a strong presence and where our members have been elected as MLAs. Our team went to around 1,000 villages to conduct a survey of how many people died with Covid-19 symptoms like fever, cough and breathing trouble. We are shocked to find that the toll could be 18 to 20 times more than the figures released by the state government,” CPI-ML Bihar secretary Kunal told The Telegraph.
According to data released by the Bihar government, the state has registered over 723,570 Covid-19 cases and 9,621 deaths so far.
The authenticity of the virus death toll had been questioned by various individuals and organisations who moved the high court.
The high court also noticed inconsistencies in the death figures reported by different government agencies and directed the Nitish Kumar dispensation to conduct an audit. It led to an overnight revision of the Covid-19 casualties from 5,478 to 9,429 in June — a 73 per cent jump in the numbers.
“The survey report is unnerving. We are going to submit it to the high court and also table it in the Assembly in the upcoming monsoon session. It will include statements and video recordings of the family members of those who lost their lives to the coronavirus. We will press for action on the issue, improvement in medical facilities and compensation to the next of kin of the deceased,” Kunal, who goes by one name, said.
Though he asserted that he would make the entire report public after submitting it to the high court and the Assembly, he gave a glimpse of how bad the Covid-19 situation could be in the state, especially in rural areas.
“Our team conducted the survey in 344 villages of Bhojpur district. We found that 2,113 people died there during April-May this year. Of them, 1,840 victims had symptoms of Covid-19 while the rest 273 died due to other causes. On the other hand, the state government data show that only 94 people died of Covid in these villages. There is a vast difference between the government data and the ground reality,” Kunal said.
The CPI-ML has started a campaign to help the family members of Covid-19 victims submit applications at the block level to claim Rs 4 lakh compensation announced by Nitish for each pandemic death.
The report also says very few patients managed to reach hospitals. The lack of facilities, scarcity of oxygen, doctors and medicines, the fear of isolation, as well as, not getting the bodies of the victims, and poverty were some of the reasons that kept people away from the hospitals.
“At many hospitals, the patients were not tested for Covid-19 despite having symptoms. They were treated for typhoid. In many cases the hospitals have not mentioned anything about diagnosis or the cause in death certificates. There are also cases in which the family members of the deceased either threw away or burnt the documents provided by the hospitals,” a part of the survey report stated.
Some portions of the report also throw light on the plight of the families that have lost their sole breadwinner to Covid-19.
The party is now planning to expand the survey to other districts of Bihar in a bid to help the pandemic victims.
