Thiruvananthapuram : Information Kerala Mission(IKM) “spikes” deaths by over 9000 in its reply under RTI on Covid fatalities for same period. In its reply dated 22 July, IKM puts Covid deaths in 2020 as 32 and 14,432 for the year 2021. And, it its reply dated 23rd, death tally for 2021 is quoted 23,486 – a neat spike of 9022 death numbers. This bogus spike was held up by Opposition Leader VD Satheesan in the Assembly for what he claimed was government’s underreporting of Covid deaths in the state. Incidentally, some media brands too joined that celebration.
The numbers seized upon by VD Satheesan to cast accusations on the government came in an a RTI reply received by KPCC Secretary Adv, PR Prankumar, Prankumar had applied under RTI on the 14th of July and received a rather quick reply on the 23rd. Also, the haste Satheesan exhibited during in the Assembly to put government in the dock against the fake numbers too appeared dubious.
IKM’s first reply stating death tally of 14,432 came against query placed by a News Minute journalist. She had received the reply after a gap of one month from date of her query. Interestingly, the reply to Prankumar’s query came in matter of just nine days.
