Bengal BJP seeks feedback from people on TMC govt's COVID-19 preparedness

Amid the raging controversy over alleged mishandling of the COVID-19 situation by the TMC government, the West Bengal unit of the BJP has launched an online survey seeking feedback from people on the state's preparedness in tackling the pandemic.

The saffron party, in its survey, has sought views and opinions on the functioning of the state, the measures taken by the ruling dispensation in handling the outbreak, and the allegations of information suppression levelled against the government.

"Since the very beginning, we have been saying that the state government is not revealing the true picture of the COVID-19 situation. Now it has been proved that it was indeed suppressing facts and figures," Ghosh told PTI.

"We have launched a mass online survey where people can submit their opinions and feedback on the issue. We will compile those opinions and release it to the media and send it to the Union government, he said.

The survey, which was launched last week, has also added questions on the ongoing migrant crisis. The party posed questions on the state's initiative to bring back people stranded in other states.

"We have been getting calls from people, who said that they wanted to come home. The state government is doing nothing about it. The government apparently launched a helpline number, but no one picks up the phone, he said.

Altogether 112 new coronavirus cases were detected in West Bengal on Wednesday, with the number of active cases in the state jumping to 1,047. The total number of COVID-19 cases has climbed to 1,456 in the state.

According to the West Bengal government, the death toll stands at 144, of which 72 fatalities have been attributed to the contagion, and the remaining to underlying concurrent illnesses, called co-morbidities in medical parlance.

The TMC-led West Bengal government and the BJP-led Union government had been engaged in a war of words for the last two weeks over the state's "dismal performance in handling of COVID-19 situation".

The state government had denied the charge and said that the Centre had sent inadequate number of kits to Bengal, some of which were faulty devices sourced from China.