Former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami urged the state government to attribute the death of Covid patients to coronavirus.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, he alleged that death certificates of Covid patients are issued without mentioning the cause of death as Covid-19.
“Instead, other causes are mentioned,” he said.
This would render children who lost their parents to Covid ineligible to get compensation announced by state and central governments, he said.
“There are complaints from across the state for the past few weeks that death certificates issued for people who died of coronavirus does not mention the cause of death as Covid-19,” he alleged.
Children of the victims are denied government compensation because of this.
“I would like to point out that the Supreme Court has directed the government to enumerate number of children who have lost their parents to Covid and submit a report,” he said.
“Hence, I request the state government to mention the right cause of death in the death certificates of Covid patients who die in government and private hospitals,” EPS said adding that the government should also ensure that their children get the compensation.
Besides, when the cause of death is not mentioned as Covid, the protocol mandated for cremation of bodies of Covid victims is not followed.
The body is handed over to the relatives, which is taken to their houses for funeral rites where several people participate.
Exactly a year ago, EPS was defending the state authorities when similar complaints of fudging of death data was levelled against him.
“If anyone dies of Covid and if their details do not figure in the government list of Covid fatalities, their relatives would immediately approach the media and expose it,” he had said on June 11 last year in Salem.
“Many people die of other health complications.
We should not attribute those deaths to Covid,” he had said.