Teachers’ deaths: Priyanka slams UP govt, says it is taking away honour after death

New Delhi

Slamming the Uttar Pradesh government over the deaths of teachers and workers on duty during the panchayat polls, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday alleged it did not provide them proper treatment and was also taking away their honour after death.

Her attack came a day after a teachers' body said over 1,600 teachers and workers of the Basic Education Department had died of Covid-19 in UP since the first week of April and claimed 90% were on panchayat poll duty.

Taking objection to the state government refuting the report, the Congress leader said, "Denying the list of 1,621 teachers, who died while doing duty during the panchayat elections, issued by the UP Shikshak Sangh, an insensitive UP government is saying the number of teachers who died was only three.”

The teachers did not get proper safety equipment and treatment while they were alive and now the government is also taking away their honour after death, the Congress general secretary alleged in a tweet in Hindi.

Earlier, the Yogi government claimed only 3 government teachers succumbed to Covid-19 during the recent polls. This is in contradiction to the claims made by various prominent teachers' bodies over 1,600 staff died after contracting the infection.