Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, on Friday demanded an impartial probe into media reports that alleged massive fudging of data in the state over the last six months to prove that “Bihar was testing highest in the country and the pandemic was not alarming in the state”.
The RJD leader took to microblogging site and tweeted a national daily report which said that several mobile numbers of those tested were mentioned as “0000000000.”
Attacking Nitish, who often boasts of zero tolerance towards corruption, Tejashwi tweeted, “0000000000 Tolerance on corruption by Corruption-in-Chief of Bihar.”
Eyebrows were first raised in September 2020, a month before the first phase of Assembly elections, when the Health Department's statistics showed that Bihar, which had been lagging in coronavirus testing till August, suddenly started testing more than one lakh persons per day.
“Bihar had the worst testing statistics. We repeatedly requested the CM to ramp it up, he responded by transferring three health secretaries (who didn’t fudge data) and ultimately faking the numbers through his trusted Babus to mint money. CM must reply on this scam,” tweeted Tejashwi.
Media reports suggested that many of the mobile numbers, when cross-checked, were found to be of people residing in Uttar Pradesh or Jharkhand or of those who were never tested for coronavirus. Some feigned ignorance and wondered how they were receiving SMSs even though they were never asked for RAT or RTPCR test.
“Corruption-in-chief and his team of corruptionists have been playing this game for the last 15 years and have ruined Bihar. By fudging data, they have siphoned off billions of a poor state like Bihar. More than 62 scams have been identified in Nitish Ji’s rule,” said Tejashwi in a separate tweet.
Bihar’s Health Minister and senior BJP leader Mangal Pandey said he was made aware of the matter and had asked top officials to look into the issue. “A proper investigation will unravel the truth. I have been told that some of the names mentioned (in the media report) were actually tested, in contrast to what has been said about them. But let there be a fair probe.”
Principal Health Secretary Pratyaya Amrit said he has asked the civil surgeons and other senior officials to look into the issue.
However, Dr Vijyendra Satyrathi, the civil surgeon of Jamui, defended his officials, saying that many villagers in remote Jamui areas still do not have mobiles. So, they submitted the mobile number of head of their families while undergoing tests. “Many villagers, who came for testing and submitted their samples, just gave one mobile number of their family head. Some of them were illiterates and had no mobile.....However, a proper investigation will bring out the truth,” the Civil Surgeon said.
Comments
Add new comment