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Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra expressed concern over the number of deaths of teachers on panchayat poll duties in Uttar Pradesh and demanded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for kin of the deceased.
Amid the unprecedented surge of corona infection, the state was witness to a four-phase panchayat elections and voting for the fourth phase was carried out in some districts on Thursday.
More than 130 government staff, including  teachers, have died during or after discharge of poll duty.
On Thursday, the Congress leader demanded a Rs 50 lakh compensation for the kin of the deceased staffers and a job to a member of each affected family. Priyanka tweeted, “The news of the death of numerous teachers engaged in UP Panchayat election duty is sad and scary. The arrangements for security of those doing election duty were poor, so why send them? I strongly support the demand of Rs 50 lakh to the families of all teachers and to the dependents for jobs.”
“When people are dying in this pandemic for lack of treatment and doctors, health workers and doctors are posted for election duty. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should answer on whose direction this is happening and take action against those responsible,” UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said in another tweet.
Lallu said that Congress workers were diligently helping those in need of oxygen and other crucial equipment and medicines amid the pandemic. ''We have also sent oxygen concentrators to many needing the life-saving gas at their homes. A tanker of liquid oxygen was also sent by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhuphesh Baghel on the request of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi to Medanta Hospital in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Addressing media persons on Thursday, Lallu  also accused the Chief Minister for lying on the issue of extending medical facilities like oxygen, beds, medicines etc. “I challenged Yogiji to provide at least one of his direct contact numbers or of the officer close to him and it would take no time for them to learn the facts about their claims of no shortage of any essentials,” asserted Lallu.
The Congress leader claimed that the  health care  system in Uttar Pradesh had completely collapsed but the government was not ready to accept its failures and drawbacks.  He questioned the government for reducing RT PCR testing and said that in the absence of contact tracking, the pandemic was fast spreading in rural areas.  He also the state government for concealing the real figures of causality due to Covid and sought to know where were the 1.5 lakh beds in Covid hospitals in the state which the chief minister informed inside the assembly while speaking about preparedness for the second Covid wave.