Nagaland: Doctor alleges scam in COVID-19 management

A doctor from Nagaland, who lives in Kathmandu in Nepal, accused the Neiphiu Rio government of Nagaland of being indulged in a big scam in COVID-19 management.

Claiming that he has all the facts and figures about the scam, Dr. Pankaj Gupta said, “The Neiphiu Rio-led government has been playing with the lives of the people in this health emergency caused by the COVID-19.”

He accused the Nagaland government of being involved in ‘spreading the COVID-19 virus intentionally to get more grant from the Central government.’ “The Central government had released 11,092 crore for COVID-19 management. Of which, Nagaland received a fund of Rs 20 crore while worst affected Maharashtra received 1161 crore, Madhya Pradesh received 1910 crore and Uttar Pradesh received 966 crore,” the doctor said in a 36:32 minute-long video published on his own YouTube channel

" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘Dr Pankaj gupta’ on May 30^th, 2020.

Also read: Nagaland: 7 Chennai returnees test positive for COVID-19, state tally reaches 43

Moreover, Dr Gupta alleged that the government has failed in COVID-19 war room management. “Out of the Rs 20 crore, the government has spent only Rs 5 lakh for the war room where the government should have spent more fund,” Gupta said adding that the government has spent Rs 4.56 per head only in the state which is even lower than a cheap face mask.

Besides, talking about the disbursement of financial aid to the stranded people, Gupta said, “The governmenthad saidthat it would give Rs 20,000 to patients, Rs 3000 to students and Rs 4000 to working people stranded in different parts of the country. Unfortunately, only 82 patients out of 115, who had registered, received the aid while 1602 out of 2305 registered students and 275 out of 7380 migrant workers have received the aid so far. Where is the other portion of money?”

Urging to save the Nagas from political conspiracy, he alleged that the government had released a COVID-19 patient without testing with 163 others to Tuensang district. “What is the health status of those 163 people?” he questioned.

He further questioned the government about the necessity to install the COVID-19 facility in Dimapur instead of setting it in Kohima, which is the entry point to the state.

It may be mentioned that Nagaland has registered a total of 43 confirmed coronavirus cases so far, as stated in the state government website. The state has zero death case.