By PTI
AHMEDABAD: The BJP government in Gujarat on Wednesday strongly refuted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim that nearly 3 lakh people have died due to coronavirus so far as against the official tally of around 10,000 and dubbed his remark as an attempt to misguide people and malign the state.
A Gujarat minister challenged Gandhi to take a similar stand on states where the Congress is in power on its own or in coalition and declare that their official COVID-19 death figures were also fabricated.
Responding to Gandhi’s charge, Gujarat education minister and government’s spokesperson Jitu Vaghani said there is a difference between people who succumbed to coronavirus and deaths occurring due to other ailments during the pandemic period.
“Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that 3 lakh people have lost their lives due to coronavirus in Gujarat is baseless and unfounded. We condemn such attempts to malign Gujarat. This is being done by the Congress as part of their agenda to incite people and create panic among the masses through falsehood,” Vaghani told reporters in Gandhinagar.
According to Vaghani, the official death toll of Gujarat is 10,088 (10,092 as on Nov 24), and not 3 lakh as claimed by the former Congress president.
In comparison, the minister said in Maharashtra, where the Congress is part of the ruling coalition, the official coronavirus death toll is 1,40,807.
In Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – all ruled by the Congress – the official death count is 16,553, 8,954 and 13,552, respectively, he said.
In the AAP-ruled Delhi, the government’s official coronavirus fatality tally is 25,091, Vaghani said.
“Rahul Gandhi should answer before the media and declare that official figures of the Congress-ruled states were also fabricated. I condemn Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to misguide people as he showed deaths due to other illnesses during the pandemic as deaths due to coronavirus,” said Vaghani.
He said the matter related to compensation to families of COVID-19 victims is still pending before the Supreme Court.
In the government’s defence, the minister further said the death certificates for those who died during the pandemic were issued as per the guidelines formulated by the WHO and the Health Department.
During the day, Gandhi shared a video in which families, who lost their dear ones due to COVID-19 in Gujarat, alleged that they did not receive timely help from the government.
In the 4.31-minute video, released as part of “Congress Nyay campaign”, Gandhi said the ‘Gujarat model’ is much talked about but the families said during the pandemic they neither got a hospital bed nor a ventilator.
Gandhi said while the Gujarat government claims that only 10,000-odd patients have died due to COVID-19, the truth is that “three lakh people have died” due to the infection.
He claimed Congress workers have gone house-to-house to ascertain the figure put out by him.
“The official tally says 10,000 people died due to COVID-19, but the truth is three lakh (succumbed),” he claimed.
Gandhi said the Congress wants the government to pay compensation of Rs four lakh each to the families of people who have died due to the infection in the country.
Gujarat’s COVID-19 tally on Wednesday rose to 8,27,296 with an addition of 29 new cases, while no fresh death due to the infection was registered in the state, the health department said.
With 32 patients getting discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, the tally of recovered cases rose to 8,16,888, it said.
No new COVID-19 fatality was reported during the day, keeping the number of deaths in the state unchanged at 10,092, said the department in a release.
The number of active cases in the state stands at 316, of which four patients are in critical condition, the release said.
As many as 4.52 lakh people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the count of doses administered so far in Gujarat to 7.84 crore, the department said.
District-wise, Ahmedabad reported the highest number of 13 new cases with all of them coming from the city.
Among other districts, Vadodara and Valsad reported three new cases each, Surat, Rajkot and Gandhinagar two each, Aravalli, Gir Somnath, Morbi and Navsari one each, it said.
In the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, the tally of COVID-19 cases and recoveries remained unchanged at 10,655 and 10,650, repetitively, with no new additions on Wednesday, officials said.
The UT has one active case at present, while it has reported four coronavirus-related deaths so far, they said.
Gujarat’s COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 8,27,296, new cases 29, death toll 10,092, discharged 8,16,888, active cases 316, people tested so far – figures not released.
