‘FURORE WON’T BRING BACK DEAD’: HRY CM’S REMARK SPARKS ROW
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar defended his government’s handling of the pandemic on Tuesday and said it was futile to argue over Covid-19 fatality figures as the deceased won’t come back to life, triggering Opposition allegations that the administration was underreporting virus deaths.
The government has faced allegations of underreporting Covid-19 deaths in the state because the figures of crematoriums and burial grounds do not match with the official death toll numbers. But the CM defended the government.
“The kind of difficult situation we are going through, we don’t have to play with data. Our entire focus should be on how people will recover and how we can provide them relief,” he said,
“And those who have died will not come back by creating a furore over it,” he added, arguing that there was no point in getting into a debate on whether or not the official number of deaths was correct.
Khattar visited Rohtak, Panipat, Hisar and Faridabad to review the supply of oxygen and other facilities for Covid patients.
The opposition Congress criticised his remarks with party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala saying, “These can only be the words of a merciless ruler. There is a need to make a noise over every death which is the result of the government’s inefficiency so that the deaf BJP government can hear the echo.”
State Congress chief Kumari Selja also slammed Khattar for such an “irresponsible” statement. “The people are suffering...and Haryana CM is making irresponsible statements on Covid patients’ deaths,” she said.
Haryana recorded its biggest single-day jump in Covid-19 deaths as 84 people died on Tuesday