NEW DELHI, July 9, 2024—Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Devender Yadav said that it was a matter of grave concern and worry that a record number of 246 dengue cases have been reported in the Capital between January 1 and June 29, 2024, which was the highest number of cases recorded in Delhi since 2019, with the Delhi Health Minister, as always, realizing rather late about the gravity of the situation, and then “directing” officials to intensify fogging and sanitation campaigs, and “warning” hospitals and officers concerned against “negligence”.
Shri Devender Yadav said that ever since the Kejriwal Government came to power in Delhi, it has almost become a pattern for the Delhi Ministers to pass on the responsibilities and blames for their own failures on the officials when the citizens face severe shortage of piped potable water in the summer, air and water pollution, waterlogging at the first monsoon downpour, and vector-borne diseases like dengue, chickungunya and malaria posing severe health hazards to the people, lack of sanitation etc. instead of making advance preparations at the Ministerial-level to tackle such situations.
Shri Devender Yadav said that the AAP Government does not seem to have learned any lessons from its past lapses in controlling vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya, malariya as in 2015, the Capital witnessed the worst outbreak of dengue when 15,867 cases were reported with 60 deaths while in 2021, 9,613 dengue cases were reported with 23 deaths, when the now jailed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was very much around. He said that when Covid-19 pandemic cases soared, then too the Delhi Government did not act on time, resulting in the death of thousands of people whose lives could have been saved had they got timely medical help.
Shri Devender Yadav said that when Aam Aadmi Party was not in power in the MCD, the CM Kejriwal used to blame the Corporation for the spike in vector-borne diseases like dengue and poor sanitation, but now that AAP was in power both at the MCD and in Delhi, preventive steps to check vector-borne diseases was no better. He said that Kejriwal used to assert that if AAP came to power in the MCD, the Capital will be freed of accumulated garbage, including the legacy waste piled up in the three garbage mountains, and clean stagnant water, which was the breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Shri Devender Yadav appealed to the Delhi Government and the MCD to take urgent steps to check dengue, and not to wait for the situation to get out of control, and put the lives of the people at risk.
