RJD's Tejashwi Yadav accuses Nitish govt of fudging data on Covid-19 positive cases

PATNA: Continuing his salvo against the state government for alleged inept handling of the Covid19 pandemic, RJD leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Saturday alleged that the state government was fudging data on coronavirus positive cases.
Tejashwi turned to his twitter handle to highlight the situation arising out of Covid-19 outbreak in the state ahead of the upcoming assembly poll. Tejashwi Tweeted, “If the testing facility is not increased and done properly, there is a strong possibility of the state emerging as a global hotspot for the deadly virus.”

Stating that the Covid19 testing in Bihar was the lowest in the country, the RJD leader alleged that the state government was manipulating the data and hiding facts. Instead, the government should be transparent in providing actual figures. The test results obtained for a day are declared for two days, he said.
The leader of the opposition claimed that the rate, at which the cases are increasing is alarming. If on an average 30,000-35,000 tests were conducted daily, around 4,000-5,000 new cases will be detected and the state would have the most infected people. “The rate, at which the coronavirus cases are rising, it seems that Bihar will not only become a national hotspot but a global hotspot,” he added.
Tejashwi tweeted thrice at short intervals to describe the situation in the state. He said that the testing rate is so abysmal that hardly 10,000 tests were conducted in the last three days. On an average 1,000 new positive cases were detected daily in the state despite slow rate of testing, which was explanatory to the prevailing situation, he asserted.

To drive home his point, the former deputy chief minister said that the official data released by the state government showed that on an average 4159 tests were conducted in the last four months, which is very low compared to the other states with the same population and similar geographical area.
Describing lockdown as a ‘pause button’, the RJD leader said that the lockdown would provide ample time to make arrangements to deal with the situation. On Friday, both RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his former CM wife Rabri Devi had slammed the state government for its failure to ensure proper treatment to the people infected with the virus. “The ongoing cat and mouse game will not bear any fruit. Who will fight the enemy when the chief of the Army is not present on the battlefield?” RJD chief Lalu tweeted in Bhojpuri.
Refuting the allegations levelled by Tejashwi, the JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said, “The fact that the state government is making all-out efforts to check the coronavirus is no more a secret. Despite it, Tejashwi is making false and baseless allegations about fudging of data on Covid19 positive cases.”
Prasad said that Tejashwi should seek apology from the people of the state for making baseless and frivolous charges. “If he has facts, he should place them. There is transparency in the official data on Covid19,” the JD(U) leader said, adding that the RJD leader should have done his homework well before making any statement on such sensitive issues.
Echoing similar views, BJP spokesperson Arvind Kumar Singh sarcastically said, “It’s not Bihar, which, according to Tejashwi, has become the potshot for Covid19, but the RJD has truly become a potshot for neglected and ineffective opposition in the state".