PAWAR BLAMES COP INACTION FOR BHIMA-KOREGAON

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has told a two-member commission that had the police taken timely action, the Bhima Koregaon violence that occurred on January 1, 2018, could have been avoided.

As a law-enforcement agency, the police were responsible for maintaining law and order, he said on Thursday deposing before the commission formed by the state government in February 2018 to investigate the violence.

The commission had summoned the NCP chief to depose before it over his statements made in the past.

NEW DELHI: At least 4.7 million people died in India due to Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, releasing new estimates of the pandemic’s true death toll which, it said, came to about 15 million fatalities worldwide, close to three times the official data released by countries in this period.

The WHO’S estimate of deaths in India is close to 10 times the 481,000 fatalities recorded officially till the end of 2021. The Indian government issued a rebuttal, objecting to WHO’S assessments by saying that the “process, methodology and outcome” were flawed on several counts.

“These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises, including stronger health information systems,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general in a statement.

India, at 4.74 million estimated fatalities, was projected by WHO to have lost the most lives. The second highest projected fatalities was for Russia at 1,072,326, followed by Indonesia at 1,028,565 and the United States at 932,458.

In terms of deaths as percentage of population, India appeared to have fared better – it ranked 33, with 17.1 deaths per million people. Among large countries, Russia had the highest death toll – 36.7 deaths per million placing it on the fifth spot among WHO’S 194 countries. Other countries that fared worse than India included Mexico (24.2 deaths per million), Ukraine (22.7), Poland (20.8), South Africa (20), and Indonesia (18.7).