Opposition's allegations over statistics of COVID-19 deaths are false, baseless: Karnataka Minister

Karnataka Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar on Saturday said the allegations made by the leader of opposition Siddaramaiah regarding statistics about COVID-19 deaths is completely false and baseless.

"The allegations made by Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah on Twitter regarding statistics about COVID-19 deaths are completely false and baseless," said Sudhakar.

"The state government has no intention to hide any statistics nor is it necessary. It is also not possible to hide or fudge any data," he added.

The Minister also informed that all the facts and figures about testing, new cases reported, recovered and deaths are collected from respective districts and then compiled in the daily bulletin which is published by Health and Family Welfare Department every day.

"Siddaramaiah is the leader of the opposition and he is free to get the information from districts and verify the same," the Minister said.

"As far as the data of the planning and statistics department is concerned the Chief Registrar of births and deaths has issued a clarification which states, 'These figures of COVID deaths are provisional entries in "eJanMa" software which are subject to reconciliation as per the guidelines issued by Registrar General of India'," he further added.

He also informed that the verification process is near completion and the final figures will be released with the approval of RGI. Therefore, people in responsible positions should refrain from making unverified, false, and baseless allegations for political gains.

"This is also an insult to our Corona Warriors who are working tirelessly for the last one year," Dr. Sudhakar said.

Earlier, today the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah alleged the state government's inefficiency, corruption and lies are the reasons for the rise in COVID-19 cases in the state.

"@BJP4Karnataka's inefficiency, corruption and lies are the reasons for the rise in #Covid19 cases in Karnataka. People of Karnataka are facing the crisis due to mistakes of the shameless @BJP4Karnataka government," he tweeted.

He further said that the Karnataka government has also lied about COVID-19 related deaths.

"According to @DHFWKA, number of #Covid19 deaths till Dec 2020 is 12,090. According to Planning and Statistical dept, it is 22,320 till Dec 2020. @CMofKarnataka, @mla_sudhakar, Which of the above data is true?" Siddaramaiah questioned.

"@BJP4Karnataka leaders have not just lied about the #Covid19 related deaths, they have also lied about medicines, masks, stizers, PE kits and other procurements. @mla_sudhakar has been consistently lying to hide the corruption and inefficiency," he further wrote in a tweet.

The Leader of Opposition further demanded the government to immediately release a white paper about the COVID-19 infection, deaths, treatment details.

( With inputs from ANI )