MCDS list 2,098 funerals, govt says no politics please

nNEW DELHI: Two thousand and ninety eight or 1,085 — a debate over the actual number of Covid-19 deaths in Delhi broke out on Thursday between the citystate’s three municipal corporations , all governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the state’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government .

The three MCDS claimed that as many as 2,098 cremations and burials of bodies of “Covid-19 confirmed cases” were conducted at its crematoriums and graveyards between March 14 and June 11 in the city.

Responding to the civic bodies’ claims, the Delhi government in a statement said the Death Audit Committee constituted by it is “working impartially”, and that this “is not the time to make allegation after allegation”.

The claims on the number of dead were made by political executives of the three civic bodies — North, East and South Delhi Municipal Corporations— in a joint press conference on Thursday. Top bureaucrats of the three municipalities subsequently refused to comment on the matter.

The Delhi government”s health bulletin released later in the day updated the death count to 1,085.

Jai Prakash, north corporation’s standing committee chairperson, said: “From March till June 11 afternoon, as many as 2,098 cremations and burials of Covid-19 confirmed cases were conducted at the cremation grounds and graveyards falling under the three municipalities. Out of 2,098 Covid-19 funerals, 1,080 were conducted in SDMC, 976 in north corporation and 42 in EDMC.”

He said that other than the confirmed cases, cremation of over 200 Covid-19 suspected bodies was also conducted across burial grounds and crematoriums.

Bhupendra Gupta, standing committee chairperson at SDMC, added: “We are giving this figure on the basis of medical reports obtained from hospitals which they release with the body. At cremation grounds and graveyards we maintain a record about Covid-19 suspected cases and confirmed cases.”

Responding to the claims of the three municipalities, the Delhi government, in a statement, said that it had set up a Death Audit Committee comprising of senior doctors who are “working impartially” towards assessing deaths caused by the coronavirus disease.

“The Hon’ble Delhi High Court has also declared that the Death Audit Committee is working in an appropriate manner and that the work of the Committee cannot be questioned. We believe that not even a single life must be lost to Coronavirus. This is a time to unite and save the lives of the people. This is not the time to make allegations after allegations, we all have to fight this pandemic together and ensure that not a single life is lost due to Coronavirus,” the government said in a statement.

There’s a view that the municipal corporations may be confusing Covid funerals for Covid deaths. As a precautionary measure, almost all funerals are conducted with adequate safeguards. But the fact that the chairpersons distinguished between Covid-19 cases and suspected cases means that there is no such confusion.

When asked about the mismatch in the figures , Prakash said that it all started from May 16 when the Delhi government issued a notice to the three civic bodies to declare the number of cremations of confirmed and suspected cases at crematoriums and graveyards.

The bodies started doing this from May 17, he explained and there was a difference to begin with. That has doubled, he added.

“We cannot fudge figures as it is based on the arrival of bodies at cremation grounds and graveyards.”