The central government received a lot of criticism during the early stages of the lockdown for neglecting migrant workers. It garnered criticism again for?claiming that it has no data on the deaths of migrant workers.?
More recently, the government also said it did not have any data on the number of healthcare workers that died during COVID.?
And now the centre has claimed there's no record of the number of medium and small businesses (MSME) that have closed during the pandemic.?
Pratap Chandra Sarangi was asked about the number of small and medium businesses that closed shop from March to August 2020. The Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) replied in a statement to Rajya Sabha, ¡®COVID-19 epidemic has temporarily affected various sectors including micro, small scale enterprises which also affected job scenario. No such record is available¡¯.?
In addition he said, there was no data on the number of MSMEs closed down from FY 2014-15 to FY 2019-20 either.
This is how people responded to this news:
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) said the act amounts to "abdication of duty and abandonment of the national heroes who have stood up for our people", a day after the govt said it did not have data on deaths of healthcare workers.
¡®Honourable Minister for state Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey has stated that public health and Hospitals come under states and so the insurance compensation data is not available with the Union Government. This amounts to an abdication of duty and abandonment of the national heroes who have stood up for our people,¡¯ the association said in a release.
Also Read:?155 Heathcare Workers, Including 64 Doctors Have Died Of COVID-19 So Far, Claims Govt