Rahul Gandhi raises issue of Covid dead bodies in Bihar

PATNA: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday trained guns at Nitish Kumar- led NDA government in Bihar on the issue of reports of unattended dead bodies. In a tweet made on Tuesday evening Rahul said, "The Covid-19 pandemic situation in Bihar is critical and out of control of Bihar government. Unattended dead body lying in hospital ward unravels "good governance" in Bihar."
Rahul’s tweet was related to a video that has gone viral on social media, in which a person is seen showing a dead body lying on a bed at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH), a dedicated Covid hospital in Patna. Leader of opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had also shared the video on social media.
Tejashwi posted another video of an unattended body at NMCH on Tuesday. He attacked health minister Mangal Pandey, saying the latter was busy in copying and pasting other’s content on social media, but did not bother to visit any health facility.
"CM is invisible and out of scene. In the all-party meeting with CM, I had asked him to set up Covid-19 dedicated hospitals at least at commissionary level but no avail (sic)," he tweeted on Tuesday.
Earlier, several pictures had gone viral showing dead bodies lying unattended on the PMCH premises.
PMCH principal Dr Vidyapati Choudhary defended the situation and said there were only six cabinets in the mortuary of forensic medicine department to keep dead bodies. "Sometimes, we are forced to keep the dead bodies outside," he said.
"We have asked the health department to increase the number of cabinets to 30 as the number of deaths is expected to increase once the PMCH is converted into a dedicated Covid hospital. We also need other equipments and beds to treat more patients," Dr Choudhary said.
Meanwhile, reacting to Rahul Gandhi's tweet, Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted, saying the former should be concerned about the "political Pichchlaggu" status of Congress’s Bihar unit. "After a Mahadalit, now an extremely backward functionary has quit Bihar Congress. Rahul Gandhi should explain why not a single person from EBC community was given ticket by Congress in the last elections," Sushil Modi said.