Congress Asks Government To Stop Hiding Covid Deaths

The Congress on Monday demanded that the Telangana government pay ex-gratia of Rs. 50,000 to all the families who had lost kin due to Covid-19, as per the directions of the Supreme Court.

Hyderabad City Congress Committee (HCCC) Minorities Department Chairman Sameer Waliullah reiterated the allegation that the state government was hiding the actual figure of the deaths due to Covid-19 so as to avoid paying compensation to the families of the victims.

Referring to the data filed by Telangana government in the Supreme Court, he said that the Covid compensation claims received by the state were almost seven times the official death count.

"As against the 3,993 deaths reported by the Telangana government, it received claims from 28,969 families. There is a huge gap of 24,976 victims. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao must seek an explanation from the health department for this huge contradiction," he demanded.

Further, Waliullah said that of the 28,969 claims, compensation had been paid to 12,148 families. This information was furnished by the state government itself in the Supreme Court, and therefore could not be denied. In this scenario, the state government must furnish the reasons for rejecting the claims of the remaining 16,821 families, he said.

"Telangana has an annual budget of nearly Rs. 2 lakh crore. The state government will need just Rs. 84.10 crore to approve all the claims received so far. In fact, it should increase the ex-gratia amount to Rs. 1 lakh per family by allocating Rs. 500 crore in the budget," he added.

Waliullah also demanded that the state government update its daily media bulletin, which showed the toll as 4,072 as on 23rd January, with the correct figures of the deaths.

"The Telangana government informed the Supreme Court that it had received 28,969 claims for compensation for Covid deaths. It has already paid compensation to 12,148. Therefore, it should update the figure of the deaths to match at least the figure of the families to whom compensation has been paid," he demanded.

The Congress leader alleged that the TRS government had been mismanaging the Covid-19 situation right from the beginning.

"KCR first downplayed the severity of the coronavirus, and later imposed an unplanned lockdown. The government miserably failed to implement the Test, Trace and Treatment strategy during all the three waves. Even now, it has adopted a casual approach to tackling the Omicron threat by trying to manage it through fever surveys. The experts have warned of an increase in severity in the Covid-19 situation in the next two weeks. Therefore, the TRS government should take some concrete measures to prevent the spread of the virus and avoid casualties," he said.