When there is no letup in the dengue menace in Cuttack city, political parties, including the ruling BJD, are engaged in mudslinging and trying to score political mileage notwithstanding the sufferings of the people here.
On Saturday, when two Ministers made a lip service to the menace in the name of review meetings here, opposition Congress and BJP members staged violent protests and the police made lathicharge on the protestors. Three BJP workers were injured in the lathicharge while the Congress threatened to oppose every visit of Health Minister Damodar Rout to the city.
Rout, along with his Cabinet colleague Debi Prasad Mishra, took stock of the dengue menace at the SCB Medical College Hospital here and then at a high-level meeting at the district Collectorate. It was revealed at the meetings that out of 2,321 blood samples tested across the State, at least 523 patients have tested positive to the viral disease. Bulks of them are from Cuttack city alone. While 99 patients are currently undergoing treatment at the SCB hospital, 177 have been discharged from here after getting cured.
But what appalls the residents here is the manner in which the Government shirked its responsibility and appealed to the Puja Committee and Sahi Murabis (local heads) to spread awareness among people about the measures to be taken to check the mosquito menace in the city.
Condemning the Government’s as well as the local civic body’s failure to improve the sanitation of the city, BJP workers staged a protest outside the office of the Collector when the Ministers were holding the review meeting. When some agitators attempted to disrupt the meeting, the police made the lathi charge on them. At least three BJP workers were injured and are currently hospitalised.
BJP State president KV Singh Deo, along with other party leaders, met injured party workers, where Singh Deo condemned police highhandedness and came down heavily on the Government. He said that the attempt by the BJD to suppress the public outcry through brutal police force would be befittingly replied by the people in the coming elections.
Congress workers too protested the Health Minister’s failure in checking the spread of the disease in the city. Hundreds of Congress workers staged a protest meeting outside the office of the Collector and threatened that henceforth every visit of the Minister to the city would be opposed.