Mumbai: Hours after Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi lauded the Maharashtra government over the handling of the pandemic and days after the Supreme Court (SC) applauded for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for its Covid-19 management, leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis has alleged that Mumbai civic body was manipulating the data on infection rate and the number of deaths. Fadnavis, in his three-page letter dated April 8, has said that the BMC has put the Covid deaths in the non-Covid deaths category to reduce the number of deaths due to infection. He said that when the death percentage for ‘death due to other reasons in the rest of Maharashtra in the second wave is 0.7%, it’s as high as 39.4%. Fadnavis said that this is because the Mumbai civic body put the Covid-19 deaths in another category violating the norms of WHO and ICMR. “The deaths out of accident, suicide, murder or cancer patients of the fourth stage can be categorised in non-Covid deaths even if they were tested positive. But the BMC is misusing the category by putting the Covid-19 deaths in this category to manipulate the numbers,” he said stated. Fadnavis has also alleged that even during the first wave, the BMC fudged the data in a similar fashion. He said that when the death percentage for ‘death due to other reasons in the rest of Maharashtra in the second wave is 0.7%, it’s as high as 39.4% (in Mumbai). He also alleged that the infection rate data is being manipulated by increasing the percentage of the rapid antigen test instead of RT-PCR.

Congress has hit back at Fadnavis by saying that the BJP leader has not been able to digest the praises showered by the prime ministers. “When the second wave started on February 10 this year, there were total 313,000 active patients and 11,400 deaths, which rose to 671,000 active patients and 13,687 total deaths as of today. There are 2,287 deaths in 3 months of the second wave, which translates into 0.7%, which is the lowest in the world. Even if other than Corona deaths are added to the Corona deaths, the rate would be 0.8% again the lowest in the world. Instead of raising fingers at the state government the BJP leaders should treat their stomach pain and pay attention to the false statistics given in BJP-ruled states like Gujarat,” said Maharashtra Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant.