Crime against humanity: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slams UP govt, SEC for conducting Panchayat polls amid COVID-19 crisis

Vadra claimed that over 700 teachers, including a pregnant lady, who was `forced` to attend polling duty died due to COVID-19 infection.

New Delhi: Attacking the Uttar Pradesh government and State Election Commission (SEC) for conducting Panchayat polls amid massive COVID-19 surge, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday (May 1) termed it a ‘crime against humanity’.

Vadra claimed that over 700 teachers, including a pregnant lady, who was 'forced' to attend polling duty have died. 

“These elections have been conducted in almost 60,000-gram sabhas of UP without any thought of the catastrophic onslaught of the second wave,” the Congress leader said.

Sharing media reports on COVID-19 deaths in the state, Vadra tweeted, "Meetings were conducted, campaigning continued and the spread of COVID in UP’s villages is now unstoppable. People are dying in numbers far, far above the deceitful official figures." 

The Congress leader claimed that several people are dying in rural homes but the fatalities are not registered as coronavirus-related deaths as people are not being tested. 

“People are dying in homes across rural UP, and these deaths are not being counted as COVID because people aren’t being tested,” she alleged. 

Further, slamming the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government, Vadra said, “The government’s actions are designed to cover up the truth and terrorise both the public and the medical community, which is working tirelessly to save lives. What is happening in UP is nothing less than a crime against humanity and the SEC UP is playing along,” she asserted.  

Polling for the four-phase panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh ended on Thursday (April 29). The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

Meanwhile, as per an IANS report, the UP Teachers' Federation and workers' organisations have refused to be present during vote counting for the panchayat elections. The UP Teachers' Federation sent a letter to the SEC to postpone the counting of votes otherwise teachers and staff will boycott it. They have alleged that from training to polling, the SEC did not follow the requisite COVID-19 norms anywhere. The federation released a list claiming that nearly 706 teachers and staff engaged in election duty have succumbed to coronavirus infection, while a large number of teachers still battling the disease.

"There is no information about how many persons in the families of these Covid-hit teachers have been infected so the counting of votes to be held on May 2 should be halted," the letter read.