BJP MPs and MLAs call out local administration, healthcare system failure to handle Covid crisis in UP

As the state government grapples with the unprecedented surge of Covid-19 that has turned UP into one of the worst-affected regions in the country, elected representatives of the ruling BJP have turned vocal in describing the failings of the local administration and healthcare system in the state.

By sending letters to the CM and administration that are finding their way to social media, as well as by releasing statements, BJP MPs and MLAs are increasingly talking about the failings, reflecting a dissatisfaction being felt in the BJP’s UP unit with the way the crisis is being managed. The contents of these letters have garnered attention as it is invariance to the claims made by the government and chief minister Yogi Adityanath that there is no shortage of beds, oxygen, etc.

“It is the top priority of everyone that things improve and such correspondence is not aimed at incriminating anyone. It is only meant to better the current facilities. At this time, both the ruling party and opposition should rise above the blame game and highlight the lack of facilities,” BJP’s UP spokesperson Hero Vajpayee reasoned when asked about the communication.

On Thursday, BJP MLA from Gola in Lakhimpur Khiri, Arvind Giri, shot off a letter to the District Magistrate (DM), stating that “more than two dozen” of his acquaintances, along with “hundreds of people” have died due to oxygen shortage and asked for more beds and medical care facilities to be provided to the constituency.

Speaking to ET, Giri said, “People were crying for oxygen and I could not help them. I kept requesting the DM, but to no avail. What the CM is doing for the state is unmatched by any other CM. He has put in a system after a lot of effort, but the administration on the ground has ruined it. District administrations are proving to be a failure”.

He said that after his communication, the tehsil administration has pulled up its socks and efforts are on now to bring the oxygen situation under control in the next couple of days, at least in Gola.

Law minister Brijesh Pathak was the first one to direct the state administration’s attention to the failing situation in Lucknow in terms of lack of bed and delays in medical care.

BJP MP from Mohanlalganj Kaushal Kishore is also increasingly vocal about the on-ground chaos –– from highlighting how oxygen suppliers were not being supplied to private hospitals to directing the CM’s attention towards laxities being observed by prominent government hospitals in Lucknow to requesting the Election Commission to postpone the panchayat elections that have allegedly claimed the lives of more than 700 teachers who were on duty.

Similarly, Meerut MP, Rajendra Agarwal had written to the CM about the glaring shortage of oxygen in the district which was preventing hospitals to accept new patients.

Earlier this week, BJP MLA from Aurai, Bhadohi, Dinanath Bhaskar, wrote a letter to the CM calling for a probe into the Covid-related death of the BJP district secretary of Bhadohi. The leader passed away on April 27 in a government hospital in Bhadohi. The MLA said he was informed by the leader’s children that despite desperate appeals, their father was neither administered Remdisivir, nor taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).