Bhubaneswar: The Odisha unit of BJP today demanded white paper on the number of Covid deaths in the state and payment of ex gratia to the family members of the deceased covid patients as per the Disaster Management Act 2005.
Senior BJP leader and Opposition Chief Whip in Odisha Assembly Mohan Majhi accused the BJD government of hiding the data on the actual number of deaths in the state due to coronavirus
Mr Majhi said he along with 11 party MLAs in a signed letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today demanded publication of a white paper on covid deaths in the state and ex gratia payment to the members of the deceased covid patients.
The BJP MLAs said the covid death figures provided by the state government is misleading alleging that the statistics given by the state government on the number of daily Covid deaths do not match with the number of people being cremated in various cremation grounds as per the Covid protocols.
Mr Majhi said many orphan children are being deprived of the welfare schemes of both state and state governments due to misleading and wrong data provided by the state government on the number of covid deaths.
Besides Mr Majhi, the other signatories of the letter are Nityananda Gond, B Murmu, Kusum Tete, Ganeshram Singhkhuntia, Naba Charan Majhi, Shankar Oram, Bhavani Shankar Bhoi, Subash Ch Panigrahi, Nauri Nayak, LB Mohapatra and Mukesh Mahalinga.
The BJP Legislators demanded the government to rectify the errors in the data on Covid deaths based on the records of cremation grounds and cover the eligible children orphaned due to the death of their parents under various schemes of the government.
Mr Majhi said since the state government has declared Covid 19 as a disaster it should pay the ex gratia to the family members of the deceased Covid patients on the lines of Assam, Bihar and Rajasthan .
The BJP leader also alleged that the health care system of the government is in complete shambles and the hospitals in the state do not have adequate numbers of doctors and paramedical staff.
He demanded the government to rise above political lines and implement the Ayushman Bharat Yojana of the union government to provide better health care services to people residing in the state and outside.