Dengue: Minister ticks off industrial houses

TALCHER: With dengue spreading to 22 districts of the State, Health Minister  Prasanna Acharya on Tuesday requested the Opposition leaders not to politicise the disease. Acharya’s statement comes in the wake of the demand of leaders like Bijoy Mahapatra of the BJP who during his recent visit to the affected areas demanded that dengue be declared an epidemic.  Acharya, accompanied by Health Secretary Anu Garg, on Tuesday visited the dengue- affected Talcher-Angul industrial belt and held talks with the top brass of MCL, NTPC and Nalco.  Addressing newsmen, the Minister ticked off industrial houses for part implementation of government directives on dengue-control measures. “We have clearly asked them to implement government guidelines earlier and are now giving two days time to cleanse the surroundings. The stress is on industries because dengue cases have come from industrial areas in the State,” he added. He said the Government had taken all efforts to combat the disease and stressed public awareness to eradicate it as the second phase of the fever would be far more lethal, the Minister observed.  Acharya also said other public sector units like Nalco and NTPC would be asked to  open their hospitals for dengue patients  and government hospitals in Angul and Talcher will take patients to reduce rush at MCL Central Hospital. About the Cuttack and Bhubaneswar-based private hospitals which have allegedly been refusing to admit dengue patients on the plea of shortage of beds, the Minister said the hospitals would be asked to increase their bed capacity to handle dengue cases. He visited the central hospital and the worst affected village, Kalamchuin, before holding another round of talks with district and industry  officials. Meanwhile, out of the total 570 fever patients who turned up for test, 150 were found positive. More than 400 patients were non-MCL patients. Transport and Commerce Minister Sanjeev Sahu, Angul, Parjanga and Talcher MLAs Rajani Kanta Singh, Nrusingh Sahu, BK Pradhan attended the review meeting.