Lucknow, Nov 30 – Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said in the Assembly that the double engine government does not simply make statements, but also execute them, emphasizing that dengue is completely under control in Uttar Pradesh because of timely steps taken by the state government.
In a counter-attack to the Leader of Opposition and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s offensive against the government on the issue of dengue, on the second day of the winter session, the Chief Minister said that the government has made a comprehensive and coordinated effort to control all vector-borne diseases including dengue, but also tracing and treating all those infected with it.
Akhilesh alleged that people were not getting treatment for dengue in government hospitals and were forced to seek treatment in private hospitals.
Deputy CM and Health Minister Brajesh Pathak was answering the questions of the Leader of Opposition and SP MLAs in the house.
Replying to the allegation, Yogi said, “Right now you have heard only half the answer, if you listen to it completely then perhaps the history will come alive in your mind. The government was already aware of dengue and made serious efforts to control communicable diseases through inter-departmental coordination.”
He said, “You have only talked about dengue, but when we talk about vector borne diseases, it also include malaria, chikungunya, kala azar. A coordinated effort has been made at the government level for the treatment of all these related diseases, be it vector-borne or water-borne diseases.”
The CM said, “It is through coordinated effort that a special campaign for communicable disease control is run three times a year in the state. The Health department, being the nodal department, controls these programmes in coordination with all other departments through awareness for the first 15 days. After this, through Dastak door-to-door campaign, suspected patients running fever are traced and taken to the nearest health centre for treatment.”
Referring to the region-wise diseases in UP, a state with a population of 25 crores, he said, “UP is a state with diverse climatic zones and therefore, diseases also differ from region to region. If you look at the area ranging from Eastern UP to Terai of Nepal till Saharanpur, the entire area was affected by encephalitis.
If you look at the area around Bareilly and Badaun, it was more infected with malaria. If you reach from Varanasi to Firozabad and Agra via Prayagraj, Lucknow, Kanpur, this entire area is affected by dengue. If we look at the Bundelkhand region, this entire region is affected by Chikungunya. Kala Azar was seen more effectively in the areas adjacent to Bihar.”
The CM said that dengue is a type of flu, having its own cycle.
Taking a jibe at Akhilesh Yadav, he said, “When a member was shouting, I was also worried about his health. What you have said is not a blood trip, it is called platelets. It is available in sufficient quantities in every district. What used to happen earlier was that we used to transfuse whole blood. Whole blood is not required for every patient, especially those with viral diseases such as dengue or multiple viruses that reduce platelet count.
We provided an additional supply of platelets in that situation. For this, blood separator units have been provided in every district.”
Referring to the efforts made regarding health infrastructure in the state, Yogi said that the government is also providing annual health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat and Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Yojana to 10 crore people in the state.
He said, “The patients are getting all the facilities in any empanelled private or government hospital. The entire house is witness that every honourable member has been given the right to give Rs 25 lakh annually by the house from its own funds.
Not only this, we do not give money from the CM Relief Fund on seeing the face. Whoever applies, his caste, creed and religion are not considered. If he is a citizen of the affected state, we can arrange money for his treatment within the state, in the country or anywhere in the world from the CM’s Relief Fund.”
Yogi asserted that the government has made funds available to even the opposition members when they have come up with proposals without any discrimination.
Continuing his attack on Akhilesh and SP, he said that the problem was that they were not interested in solving the problem, but in creating chaos in society by politicising every issue. “People had seen your malicious attempts during the novel coronavirus pandemic also when you were misleading them on the vaccine by calling it a Modi vaccine,” he said.
The CM said that both the vaccines developed by the scientists under PM Modi’s guidance in the country have proved to be the most effective vaccines in the world. He said that while Covid cases are seen increasing in all the countries of the world, it is under control in India and UP.
