Tests not being done properly, COVID-19 spreading fast in Bengal: BJP

The BJPs West Bengal unit onSaturday alleged that COVID-19 is spreading fast in the state as sufficient tests for the disease have not been conducted, a charge denied by the ruling Trinamool Congress.While the national average of testing is 198 per million, and Rajasthan has conducted 549 tests per million, the figure is abysmally low in West Bengal - 39 per million, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh claimed.He wondered why the state government is not conducting the tests required to detect novel coronavirus while testing kits are available with the health infrastructure.The BJP MP said if the situation is not checked at this point, it will go out of hand and will be difficult to control.Ghosh also accused the state government of suppressing the death figures to the public."There is discrepancy in the number of deaths. While the chief secretary is saying one figure, the appointed expert panel is coming out with another, Ghosh alleged.He said this has been a result of the state government's penchant to suppress facts."The actual death figure is at least four times of what the government is saying," he said adding that actual figures are not being recorded and bodies are being cremated secretly, raising doubts in the mind of the people.Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said 12 COVID-19 patients have died so far and till Saturday, and the total number of samples tested is 4,630.Ghosh also claimed the TMC government is not giving the true figure of personal protective equipment (PPE) available with the state."Enough PPEs have come to the state but the government is not making use of them," he alleged.Ghosh said the government has failed to maintain lockdown from the start."After getting frustrated, the chief minister herself said that if lockdown is not properly adhered to, then the government will have to be strict", he said.Neither the chief minister nor her ministers are honouring the lockdown, he alleged.Alleging irregularities in the functioning of the PDS system, Ghosh claimed that foodgrains were being diverted to the houses of the Trinamool Congress workers."The Centre has supplied six lakh tonnes of rice and pulses for distributing through the PDS in the state. But, the foodgrains are being given selectively instead and not to all who are eligible," he added.Both the health and PDS systems in the state are in doldrums, he added.Ghosh also said that the BJP leaders are being targeted and police are being posted in front of their homes or put into home quarantine.The BJP leaders said his party workers are stopped on the roads and not allowed to distribute foodgrains to the people.Senior TMC leader and minister Jtotipriya Mullick denied the charge saying a large number of people have been tested.He also asked Ghosh not to indulge in politics during a crisis.

Tests not being done properly, COVID-19 spreading fast in Bengal: BJP

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