Ahmedabad, Sep 20 (PTI) The Congress on Monday alleged 2.81 lakh people have succumbed to COVID-19 infection in Gujarat as against the official figure of 10,081 and blamed negligence and failure of the state government for "massive sufferings" of people.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: 19-Year-Old Youth Stabs Neighbour’s Teenage Daughter After Dispute Over Boundary Wall In Noida; Arrested.

Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir: Mobile Internet and Phone Services Suspended in Uri After Infiltration Bid.

In just one month of "Nyay Yatra" of Congress, the opposition party has come across 31,850 families who have lost their members to coronavirus, former Union minister and Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki told media persons.

People suffered massive pains due to the "government-made disaster" during the worst phase of the COVID-19 pandemic that was marked by the lack of proper supply of medical oxygen, hospital beds, dial '108' ambulances, and large-scale black marketing of essential drugs, the Congress said and termed the deaths as "institutional murder.

Referring to sudden resignation of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani last week, Solanki said the BJP was forced to change the guard to deflect the public anger against its "criminal negligence" to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Gujarat Congress launched a state-wide 'Nyay Yatra' on August 16, and in four weeks, party leaders met 31,850 families which had lost their members to COVID-19. This is thrice the official figure of 10,082 deaths (till Sunday)," Solanki said.

Taking a dig, he said the BJP needs to change its policy and governance system and not leaders.

"31,850 families filled in the forms with details of COVID-19 deaths in their families and handed them over to Congress workers who visited them (during the yatra). These included 11,208 forms from the Saurashtra zone, 8,045 from the north zone, 5,136 from the central zone, and 7,461 from the south zone," according to Solanki.

He alleged BJP tried to "hide its true face by changing the leadership at the government".

"People have witnessed government-made disasters during the pandemic. Due to poor administration and failure of the system, 2.81 lakh people have lost their lives (due to COVID-19) as against 10,081 claimed by the state government," he said.

As per the procedure, OVID-19 deaths are classified as per the ICMR guidelines and comorbidities are also accounted for, a state government functionary had said earlier.

Solanki slammed the state government for sanctioning the use of controversial 'Dhaman-1' ventilators for patients and claimed it was done without proper testing by experts.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)