TMC MP's bizarre logic, terms Bengal dengue menace a natural calamity

With dengue deaths continuing unabated in the state, the Mamata Banerjee administration has gone on an overdrive for damage control. Rather than accepting the magnitude of the crisis, the government remains in denial with ministers and Trinamool Congress leaders citing bizarre reasons for the outbreak.

On Sunday, TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar termed the current crisis a natural calamity! "This is nothing but a natural calamity. People don't breed mosquitoes wilfully. We are a tropical country and during monsoons mosquito will breed, it's a global phenomenon. It's not as if this is unique to our state," the MP said while visiting Deganga in North 24 Pargana district, one of the worst affected areas in state.

"State government is providing every necessary facility to treat patients and people are getting best quality healthcare and there is no issue at all," she added, while distributing mosquito nets to dengue patients admitted in government health centre.

MAKING ARRANGEMENTS MORE IMPORTANT THAN VISITING PLACES

When asked why she did not pay a visit to the area in the last two months when the dengue outbreak first came to light, the MP said she was busy arranging facilities to combat the disease sitting at the district headquarters.

"Rather than roaming around, it was more important to make sure all the arrangements were in place. I was ensuring that medical kits and other equipment were being properly sent to every locality after they had arrived at the district headquarter. As a single person, I have to handle other issue like bad roads, lack of drinking water and electricity problems too," Dastidar said.

The visit comes just days after the state government suspended a whistle blower doctor from a state run hospital in her own Barasat constituency for venting his frustration on social media over the inadequate medical arrangements to deal with the massive influx of dengue patients.

In a Facebook post, Arunachal Dutta Choudhury, a veteran doctor with the Barasat government hospital had claimed that doctors were being instructed by the state health department to mention other medical conditions as reasons for dengue deaths in certificates. Posting a photograph from October 6, Choudhury revealed how just one doctor and a nurse was allocated for 240 patients admitted on a single day at the hospital.

"We are not writing dengue as the reason for death in certificates. Seems as if there is a ban on dengue in this state. Scared of disciplinary action, we are forced to write 'fever with thrombocytopenia' as the reason behind every death," Choudhury wrote in his post.

"The district's health administration claims that all arrangements are in place but the reality is, hospital administration is completely helpless. There are unwritten instructions to cover up mess or else individual heads will roll," he added.

However, refuting all such allegations, the state government has listed three unique reasons why West Bengal was witnessing one of the worst dengue outbreaks in recent times.

In an affidavit submitted before the Calcutta high court, state Director of Health Services Biswa Ranjan Satpathy has cited an "abrupt behaviour of climate" to "huge movement of population during long holiday seasons" and persons coming in "close contact through inter-state movement of people and through international borders" as reasons behind the rapid spread of the vector borne disease.

BJP SPEAKS

Meanwhile, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Sunday shot off a letter to union health minister JP Nadda seeking the Centre's immediate intervention terming it an "epidemic".

"The danger out of this epidemic has become acute since the state government is not ready to accept the enormity of the crisis. The overall attempt is to put the crisis under the carpet, without combating the fallout," Ghosh states in his letter.