A fight erupted over the deteriorating coronavirus pandemic situation in Bihar at the cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar, with health minister Mangal Pandey accusing his principal secretary of reeling of fudged statistics about preparations to tackle it.

As the matter spiralled out of control and revealed inefficient preparations of the government, Nitish had to intervene and warn the principal secretary of the health department of action if directives of the government were not followed.

The tiff at the special cabinet meeting happened late on Saturday evening.

On Sunday, more videos of bodies and semi-conscious patients lying on the floor without being attended at the state government’s only dedicated Covid-19 hospital — Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) — became viral on social media platforms.

Similar videos had become public previously. In many videos patients and attendants were seen providing medicines, food and oxygen cylinders to their relatives admitted for Covid-19 treatment.

According to the sources present at the cabinet meeting held via video-conferencing, the tiff started as health department principal secretary Udai Singh Kumawat started making his presentation about the availability of beds and the additions that were being made. Health minister Pandey interjected and said that the figures were incorrect. It led to a verbal duel with Nitish watching everything over.

Pandey further alleged that Kumawat did not listen to him ever and would take measures on his own without consulting or asking him.

Nitish at first tried to skirt the issue by saying that it was an internal matter of the health department, but when he asked why fewer Covid-19 tests were being conducted despite his directions to do at least 20,000 tests daily, Kumawat started quoting some obsolete Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines that talked about 10,000 tests daily as sufficient for a state.

A riled Nitish then chided Kumawat and said that it was a chief minister’s directions and have to be followed irrespective of any other guidelines. He also warned of stern action if the government’s directions were not met.

“If you cannot handle the department, leave it. Keep your thoughts with yourself. All sub-divisional hospitals should have 100 beds each to treat Covid-19 patients. Patients of a district should be treated in that district only so that the hospitals in Patna are not overwhelmed. Enough oxygen cylinders should be arranged for all hospitals,” Nitish told Kumawat at the cabinet meeting.

The chief minister also lamented that if Delhi can conduct 38,000 tests daily, why Bihar cannot test even 20,000 people per day.

Nitish said that oxygen and necessary equipment should be made available close to the beds of patients and test results should be provided within 24 hours. He also directed that the health department should arrange for tests on demands for the people.

Kumawat was handpicked by Nitish after the previous principal secretary Sanjay Kumar was transferred around two months ago. However, his tenure has attracted much flak amid allegations of inefficiencies by the health department in Covid-19 management.

An aerial view of the flood affected area in Bihar’s Darbhanga district on Sunday. PTI

Sources said that the fight during the cabinet meeting also betrayed frustration and nervousness in the government about the Covid-19 management.

Patna High Court chief justice Sanja Karol and Justice S. Kumar, while hearing a case filed by one Dinesh Kumar Singh, ordered the state government on Friday to submit an affidavit including the number of tests, dedicated Covid hospitals, number of doctors at each of them, PPE kits, oxygen cylinders and ventilators available, number of dedicated ambulances, manner of disposal of dead bodies, steps to sensitise people, steps to deal with possible surge of infection and installation of CCTV cameras.

Bihar has so far witnessed more than 36,500 coronavirus cases of which over 232 have died. Around 12,000 tests were carried out on Saturday in which 2801 people were infected with the virus.

The cabinet meeting made a provision to provide full salary till the date of retirement to the family of any government employee who dies of Covid-19 while on duty.

The cabinet dismissed eight doctors from service for alleged dereliction in duty or being absent without permission.