State govt has left no stone unturned to better dengue facilities: Chandrima

Kolkata: Chandrima Bhattacharya, Minister of State (Health) slammed the Left Front and Congress MLAs stating that earlier, there was inadequate infrastructure to carry out tests to ascertain whether a person is suffering from dengue or not.

She also said confusion is being spread among the people about dengue and all kinds of fever should not be termed as dengue.

While giving her statement regarding the same at the state Assembly on Thursday, she said: "There were only three centres to test whether a person is suffering from the disease during their (Left Front) time. After coming to power and by the end of 2011, the present government had set up 11 testing centres and in 2017 the number has gone up to 33. It has ensured that people can go for tests and get ascertained whether a person is really suffering from the disease or not."

Noisy scenes were witnessed when the Left Front and Congress MLAs appealed for a discussion on dengue. They continued to protest despite repeated requests from Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay to settle down and not display mosquito nets in the Assembly.

Bhattacharya further said World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and the Centre have been followed. Moreover, the state government has spent Rs 55 crore while the Centre's allocation was only Rs 9 crore.

She stated: "Since the matter is subjudice and there will be a hearing on the Public Interest Litigation filed before the Calcutta High Court in connection with dengue, information and data till November 15 has been submitted to the court in the form of an affidavit."

She further added: "In a bid to check the spread of the vector-borne disease, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has left no stone unturned and measures since January 6 have been taken. Five meetings were held in January, March, August and twice in October respectively. We have taken steps one after the other and tasks were taken up with proper co-ordination with all the concerned departments."

"Total 1,74,417 samples were tested and it includes testing of 1,47,684 sample tests in state-run facilities and 26,733 in private ones. In the state-run facilities, 22,689 samples were found positive and the number was 5,948 in private facilities," she said, adding that it has already been informed that deaths due to dengue in the state-run hospitals was 23 till November 15 while in private healthcare centres, it was 22, verification of which is going on.