Villagers in CM Yogi's Gorakhpur claim 'no health team visited us since polls'; fear COVID

As Uttar Pradesh grapples with COVID, a village in CM Yogi Adityanath's constituency - Talanwar claims to have been left bereft of any COVID facilities. Villagers in Talanwar claimed on Saturday, that the local administration and health teams had not visited them since the polls. While they claimed that the village has remained untouched by COVID as of date, they called the govt 'careless'.

UP village slams Yogi govt

UP's COVID apathy

Last week, early 40 decomposed bodies surfaced on the banks of Ganga in Bihar raising alarm amongst local citizens and later piled up on Mahadeva Ghat's bank at Chausa town. After being identified to be of COVID-19 patients, Buxar DM said that the bodies 'appear to be 4-5 days old' and added that they will be cremated respectfully. The district administration has alleged that the bodies might have floated from Uttar Pradesh and are of COVID-19 patients. A day later, several bloated and decomposing dead bodies surfaced on the banks of river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur - which is  55 km away from Buxar.

Soon enough, hundreds of dead bodies were found buried in the sand near river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao. According to the District Magistrate (DM), the bodies were found in an area far from the river and then buried by the administration. CM Yogi Adityanath directed the SDRF and PAC police personnel to patrol every river in the state for ensuring that no one immerses the dead bodies in the river as a part of any ritual. Maintaining that every deceased person has a right to be honourably laid to rest, he revealed that the UP government has already earmarked funds for this purpose. The Centre too has directed Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to prevent dumping of dead bodies in the Ganga and its tributaries, and focus on their safe disposal and dignified cremation.

700 school staff died due to COVID

The biggest tragedy in UP amid COVID has been the death of 700 school staff who died due to COVID while on poll duty for UP Panchayat polls. As per reports,  the Uttar Pradeshiya Prathmik Shikshak Sangh has written to UP CM Adityanath and SEC, listing names of all the deceased who died due to contracting COVID-19 on poll duty, demanding to defer counting on May 2. While the Allahabad HC pulled up the Yogi govt over the deaths, the state government has denied the allegations and said it has no proof that the teachers died during poll duty. Later, the Uttar Pradesh govt announced a compensation of Rs 30 lakhs to 135 teaching staff members who died amid COVID, which was countered by Allahabad HC saying that atleast Rs 1 crore must be awarded as ex-gratia. BJP recently lost the Panchayat polls, winning 900 of the 3030 Zila panchayat wards it contested, while SP claims to have won 1000 seats, BSP 300 seats, Congress and AAP bagged 70 seats each.