Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast G. Kishan Reddy, on Sunday, said it is upto the respective state governments to gather and update data on the births and deaths and “there is no reason for the Centre to hush up the number of deaths during the COVID pandemic”.
“In our federal system, it is the states which collect such data and the Centre only makes a consolidated number for the entire country. Since I was in the Home Ministry earlier, I can tell you the Centre does not have the power to increase or decrease mortality numbers of any state. There is also no need to do so,” he asserted at a press conference at the party office.
“We will take to the notice of the respective state government any discrepancy that is brought to our notice for it to take a decision. Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not visit Gandhi Hospital to check the records,” he remarked and claimed that many prominent people have made many “outlandish” claims about the number of deaths during the pandemic and on bodies floating on the Ganga river.
