West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a review meeting over the dengue situation in the state on Saturday, gave the requisite directions to officials, and asked them to raise vigil to prevent any more deaths due to the vector-borne disease. She telephoned Chief Secretary H. K. Dwivedi and issued directives to all officials attending the meeting.
"Intermittent rainfall will continue for several more days. So, all districts, especially the coastal ones, must be careful. Work is being done against dengue but consistency must be maintained. I have a problem with my knee, so I can't go out but I am keeping a watch," Banerjee said during the meeting, as quoted by the news agency PTI.
Banerjee is currently recuperating from a left knee injury that she sustained during her foreign trip to Spain and Dubai. Other than Dwivedi, all district magistrates, the commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), superintendents of police (SPs) and CMOHs of all the districts also attended the meeting.
Senior officials of the Irrigation and Waterways, Disaster Management, PHE, UD&MA, P&RD, PWD and Health departments were also present at the meeting. She directed them to ensure that water was cleared from inundated areas on a war footing across all municipalities and panchayats, as reported by PTI. More than 30 people have died in various districts of West Bengal this year due to dengue.
Earlier on Tuesday, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh accused West Bengal's Congress party of cooperating with the state BJP to disturb the ruling party, news agency ANI reported. Opposition parties in West Bengal criticised the state's TMC administration on Monday for allegedly failing to halt the spreading dengue virus and attempting to "hide" the death toll.
Speaking with media, Ghosh stated: "Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and the state Congress should maintain the line of the INDIA alliance. They are playing a double standard policy. The top leader of the INDIA alliance should consider this problem. Our leaders Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are cooperating with the top leadership of the Congress and India alliance. West Bengal leadership of Congress in alliance with CPI(M) is cooperating with state BJP to disturb TMC."