Bengal BJP chief says Mamata govt fudging COVID-19 figures, demands white paper

West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh on Saturday demanded that Mamata Banerjee government publish a "white paper" on COVID-19 situation in state, accusing dispensation of fudging figures and deliberately delaying test results.

Ghosh told reporters that delay in test results was fuelling suspicion of a community transmission of virus and many persons were dying even before getting test results.

"Everyday y are issuing misleading figures to hide real situation," he alleged.

"re are discrepancies in official number of tests and results as results are higher than total number of tests. y think one will crosscheck and y will carry on with ir falsehood. But at whose expense, at expense of common man."

He said government is t involving Indian Council of Medical Research in testing process and vested everything on health department "so that real truth doesn't come out."

"In se circumstances, we demand state government come out with a white paper on total number of active COVID-19 cases, total number of deaths caused by virus, total number of tests done every day, time taken to get results for tests - everything. If real figures come out, we will kw about actual situation," MP said.

Ghosh also accused Banerjee of giving conflicting figures about total affected people in Cyclone Amphan.

"Initially she said 3 lakh people were affected by cyclone. She revised that to 5 lakh within a few days. w she is saying devastation affected lives of t more than 8 lakh people. This means she is raising figure to get more central help. Why should Centre trust her," he asked.

BJP leader also asked what is happening to foodgrains quota for 450 fair price ration shops, which were shut down after corruption charges were proved against se dealers. "Are foodgrains quota for se shops being siphoned off," he asked.