Mamata Banerjee hit out at the opposition over deaths due to dengue in Bengal. (File)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today hit out at the opposition for politicising deaths due to dengue. Speaking during a discussion in the state assembly, Ms Banerjee said around 44,000 people have been affected by the disease in the state.
"The opposition is behaving as if we produce these dengue larvae. If we were really able to produce these mosquitoes, we would have asked them to bite CPI(M), Congress and BJP so that they can understand the pain before making baseless allegations against the government," Ms Banerjee said.
"We don't want any deaths. We have been able to save thousands of people who were affected by the vector-borne disease. But the opposition parties of the state instead of raising awareness are only interested in politicising the matter," she continued.
She said around 85 people died of dengue in 2018 and the state government has been able to bring down the number of deaths this year.
"Around 3,000 doctors, 4,000 nurses and 51,000 government employees are working day and night to tackle the menace of dengue in the state. Around Rs 475 crore has been allotted to tackle dengue," she said.
Comparing the number of deaths that happened during the Left Front's tenure in Bengal and in other Congress and BJP-ruled states due to malaria, swine flu and dengue, Ms Banerjee lauded her government's efforts in "handling of the menace better."
Asserting that she was not taking the dengue outbreak lightly by citing figures of previous years, Ms Banerjee said even if one person dies due to the diesease, it is sad and efforts should be made to prevent that.