Delhi:
Phool Mohammad is a worried man. His wife, who fell prey to dengue, died last month leaving behind six children.
Phool Mohammad had done all that he could to get his wife treated properly. He took her to many hospitals in South Delhi, but failed to find any place to get het admitted. She didn't get access to the right treatment in time.
Had the government taken the right steps at the right time, Phool Mohammed feels his wife would have been alive today.
"Even now, no one from the government has come in to spray medicines. They have not visited our house till now," said Phool Mohammed.
But the Delhi government does not admit Mohammad's wife died of Dengue. It says that Mohammad got Elisa test done for his wife which is no more valid. Hence it was negligence on the family's part.
Even as dengue cases peak in the city, the Government's denial is beyond comprehension. By recognising cases confirmed only by the government testing method and ignoring all others, it appears that the government is in a mood to downplay the events.
The official figures of the disease are only 1,500 case and 4 deaths that grossly varies from what the hospital records say.
According to data collected from just four hospitals, Max, Apollo, Batra and Holy Family hospital, there are nearly 3000 cases.
However, the Delhi's municipal corporation says it can only account for cases where the government-recognised tests are done and that it is not underplaying the outbreak.
"MCD has a transparent system, we are not underplaying due to CWG. Some other countries have more dengue deaths, this time we only have 4. CWG infrastructure should have finished earlier. This time we could not do breeding checks early enough," says Vinod Kumar Moga, MCD health officer.
Just ahead of the commonwealth games, some countries have already issued travel advisories to their athletes.
However, in some relief for the Delhi government and the beleaguered Commonwealth Organising Committee. The Australian High Commissioner, Peter Varghese, has given his vote of confidence ahead of the games.
Varghese said that, "We are looking forward to the CWG, we are going to get a large team, team of 650 players, the largest team we have sent to any Commonwealth Games. We would be looking forward to a very good competition..."
With less than just a month to fix dengue crisis, for the Delhi government now, action will probably serve better than words.