In a scathing criticism of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, Rashtriya Lok Dal national spokesperson Anupam Mishra said that the Yogi regime is playing with fire by hiding the actual number of people infected with coronavirus and those who died due to it.  
Mishra alleged that the state government was presenting the number of infected people conservatively and the data being dished out was false. “The number shows that there is a decline in the number of corona cases but the actual figure is ominously high. This way, the state government was playing with fire,” he commented. The RLD leader further said that the state government had been continuously trying to hide the numbers related to corona infection and deaths.
“In an affidavit filed with the High Court, the government itself has admitted that it has reduced the number of Covid tests being carried out. Even the Home Secretary admitted in his affidavit that medicines are also not sufficient. If the government has reduced the number of Covid tests in the state, then the number of infected people would also come down. Earlier, about 30,000 people were being examined every day but now its has been reduced from 16,000 to 20,000. It is beyond comprehension what the government wants to achieve with such data?” he asked.
“At present, the number of rural inquiries was not included in this. If properly surveyed in rural areas, the number of Covid patients will surely cross 50,000 and the prediction of scientists that in the first and second week of May there could be more than one lakh infected people in Uttar Pradesh, will be proved true,” he claimed.
Mishra further pointed out, “The picture of dead bodies floating in the Ganges, Yamuna were not only frightening, but has also brought to the fore that the infection was spreading fast in the hinterland. The economic condition of villagers has become so pathetic that they don’t have money for the last rites, and were hence forced to abandon the bodies of their relatives.”
Accusing the BJP government, Mishra said that the state government like the proverbial ostrich and was ignoring the people dying, smoking funeral pyres and children being orphaned. “The government is trying to build its image by manipulating different agencies,” he said.