The Uttar Pradesh government has said that only three teachers died of COVID-19 while on duty during the recently-concluded panchayat poll dismissing the figure of over 1,600 deaths claimed by teacher unions. Satya Prakash, under secretary of basic education department, Uttar Pradesh, said on Tuesday that so far District Magistrates had provided the State Election Commission a list of only three confirmed deaths of teachers. The State government’s statement stands in stark contrast to the claim made by the Uttar Pradesh Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, a union for primary teachers. The union earlier this week released a list of 1,621 teachers and staff of the basic education department who allegedly died of COVID-19 after being assigned duty in the panchayat polls and control rooms for the pandemic. The SEC recently informed the Allahabad High Court that 77 polling officers and agents in 28 districts had died while on duty as polling in the panchayat polls.

Source: The Hindu May 19, 2021 07:32 UTC