Controversy has been looming in the state over number of COVID-19 deaths.
The death audit committee in Bengal - that has been under attack from the opposition - is in limbo, sources have said, after the state government announced on Thursday that the panel had voluntarily redefined its role.
The audit panel has been segregating the deaths in the state due to the highly infectious COVID-19 into two two sets. In its latest report, it said that 105 coronavirus patients had died in the state; however, only 33 of these deaths were caused by the virus. Seventy-two patients had died of comorbidities or other underlying conditions, according to the report.
The two sets of figures were questioned by the opposition parties that claimed the panel was set up by the state government to suppress the actual outbreak figures.
Questions on whether the committee was set up as per Indian Council of Medical Research - the country's top medical body - or WH0 guidelines were never clearly answered by the government.
On Thursday, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh had filed a a public interest litigation in the Calcutta High Court questioning the committee's validity. The panel should be scrapped, he had demanded.
Earlier, the IMCT or the teams sent by the central government to Kolkata had sought details about the audit committee from the chief secretary. It had asked whether the committee had been set up as per the guidelines of the ICMR.
According to sources, mounting pressure from the opposition and a section of doctors finally forced the government to redefine the role of the audit committee.
"The huge difference in COVID-19 and comorbidity deaths was not going down well with people," a source close to the the ruling party said.
"People can accept big numbers of cases and deaths but discrepancies and differences in figures are damaging for the government," the source added.
The rethink was signaled by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. At her press meet on Wednesday, she completely distanced herself from the panel.
Mamta Banerjee said the committee had been set up by her bureaucrats and that she had no idea about it, not even who was the members of the committee were.
After that, say sources, the sidelining of the panel was only a matter of time.
Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Thursday the audit committee would continue to remain functional. But added that "the committee is saying that after this, we will carry out random picking of samples from various places and on the basis of the random sampling seek the death details from the hospitals and whenever new findings emerge, we will inform the government."
Describing the statements offered by the chief secretary as face-saving measures, sources said that the role of the death audit committee would henceforth be extremely limited.
Officially, as of Thursday, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 for Bengal is 33 and has not been revised to 105 yet.