Dengue alarm in Bengal, PIL at Calcutta HC seeking court intervention

Kolkata: In wake of the rising number of dengue cases in West Bengal, a public interest litigation has been filed in the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, seeking the court’s invention in ensuring proper administrative initiatives in arresting further spread of the disease.

The PIL has been filed by Dr Sanjib Kumar Mukhopadhyay, a medical practitioner.

The matter will come up for hearing by the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya this week only.

In his petition, Mukhopadhyay has claimed since the different municipalities, municipal corporations and rural bodies in the state have failed miserably in arresting the spread of this menace, the high court’s intervention is necessary to fix responsibilities of the authorities concerned in the matter.

The PIL has been filed at a time when the Union Health and Family Welfare Mionistry has accused the West Bengal Health Department of suppressing the actual figures relating to the number of affected people or the deaths. On the other hand, the state government has accused the Union government of denying the necessary financial assistance on this count. I

n his petition, Dr Mukhopadhyay has also stated that the common people are suffering in the midst of such a tussle between the Union and the state governments. He has also accused that there are severe shortages of blood platelets in different state-run hospitals in the state, thus making the situation even more critical. He has also sought the intervention of the Calcutta High Court in ensuring rapid blood tests on this count.