Union min's rhetoric on dengue similar to BJP leaders, says Hakim

kolkata: Rubbishing Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar's claim that the Bengal government had not been sharing any information on dengue with the Centre despite repeated requests, state minister and Mayor of Kolkata Firhad Hakim on Friday said that the former was speaking the language of BJP leaders and politicising the entire issue.

Earlier in the day, Pawar—while attending the 16th Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Disease and Nutrition (ASCODD) in the city—accused the State government of not sharing dengue data. She also claimed that the Centre had been constantly guiding the states in controlling the vector-borne diseases.

"We have nothing to hide. Why should we hide the dengue figure? Providing data to the Centre will benefit us as we can seek help from it. What is the point in hiding data? Dengue has spread not only in Bengal but in the rest of the country as well. Should we blame Prime Minister Narendra Modi for that? During the CPI(M) regime, dengue cases were reported in large numbers. Should we hold CPI(M) responsible for that?" asked Hakim.

According to the National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases and Control's website, the State government provided dengue-related data for the last time on September 30. State government has, however, held Centre's faulty website responsible for the incident. When asked about the Union minister's comment on dengue, Director of Health Services Siddhartha Niyogi, who also attended ASCODD, refuted the claim. "We have been sending information to the Centre. Maybe the information has not been uploaded in some places. Even after the information is shared with the Centre, the website is updated late," said Dr Niyogi.