KOLKATA: Police in Bankura have filed an FIR, the first in the state under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, against local BJP MP Subhas Sarkar for allegedly raising a "false alarm" over Covid-19 deaths in Bengal.Sarkar has been charged under Section 54 of the act and IPC Sec 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).The police action was initiated after the MP went public with two cases of death at Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital on April 12. According to the medical superintendent and vice-principal (MSVP) of the hospital, the two patients were admitted with fever and respiratory distress. In his letter to Swasthya Bhavan, the MSVP had sought instructions on how to release the bodies.T he BJP MP said he was amused by the FIR based on the complaint of local TMC leader Joydeep Chatterjee. "I don't understand, what wrong have I done," Sarkar said. A physician by profession, Sarkar showed a copy of "Form IV" where a doctor has written in the death certificate the immediate cause of death, medical antecedents and other diseases ." T he bodies were released while positive test reports of the two patients reached the hospital the day after. The state government is hiding Covid death figures as it had done during the dengue outbreak," Sarkar told TOI.Sarkar echoed a member of a medical expert panel, Sukumar Mukherjee, who spoke about the three components in the death certificate and urged doctors to fill them up. But, the MP said, he failed to understand the need to set up a panel to audit death figures. "Such medical panels are seen nowhere in the world. Doctors write death certificates based on diagnosis. What is the need of a panel? I shared this on social media. I am afraid the government has taken exception to my plainspeak," the MP said. In another development, some doctors of Burdwan Medical College and Hospital were summoned to the medical superintendent's chamber on Thursday and asked why they wrote about inadequacy of protective equipment at government hospitals.In the presence of the Burdwan DM, IG (western zone) and DIG (Burdwan range), the doctors told hospital superintendent Suhita Pal that they had made a general statement and that there was adequate protective gear for health workers at the hospital. They, however, complained that physical distancing norms were not being enforced in the OPD. Pal assured the doctors that the distancing protocol would be enforced.The administration's attention was drawn after BJP MP from Barrackpore Arjun Singh uploaded a letter on social media.