The Health Minister Brahm Mohinhdra today minced no words in bringing forth the reckless attitude of other stakeholder government departments for giving ‘damn care’ to the waken up calls generated by Health Department for doing their duty well in advance before the onset of mosquito breeding season, failing which the state has to witness the upsurge of Dengue every year. Among other, Local Government and Rural Development department were criticised by the Health Minister for its habit of paying deaf ear to the calls of Health Department.The Health Minister blatantly castigated the careless approach of most of the government departments for not discharging their administrative duty for curbing the outbreak of dengue in the State. He was speaking to the officers of other stakeholder government departments while chairing the crucial ‘State Task Force Meeting’ which was convened to take stock of the preparedness of other departments in controlling the Dengue outbreak.Mr. Brahm Mohinhdra said that every year Health Department unnecessarily earned the wrath of media and public for the outbreak of Dengue. He divulged that neither the media nor the public is aware of this bare fact that the responsibility of the Health Department starts when a patient down with Dengue is admitted in the hospital, that too for the medical care and treatment for such patients.He said that everyone is oblivious of the fact that Local Bodies and Rural Development department are the key players in tackling the outbreak of Dengue and other water borne diseases.Mr. Mohinhdra said, ‘by saying so Health Department is not shirking form its responsibilities and administrative duties required to done at our end.’ He said that Health Department is fully prepared to deal with any eventuality. "Department of Health has 33 labs in the State which have tested estimated 22000 samples free of cost for dengue and all the cases of dengue are being provided free treatment in Government Hospitals of the State.
Apart from this Staff of Department of Health has visited around 15.5 lakh houses to check breeding of mosquito and information of approximate 37000 houses from where breeding has been found has been shared with Local Government for spray/fogging and other remedial measures." added Mr. Mohindra.e said it is the sole responsibility of Local Government to do fogging in the vulnerable urban area and Rural Development Department to do the same in rural areas. He expressed serious concerns that though he himself write Demi-Official letters every year to the stakeholder departments to act proactively in advance and do the fogging in vulnerable areas but never ever they shared action taken report with him. He specially mentioned Local Government and Rural Development Department in this regard.Health Minister said that for the prevention and control of outbreak of Dengue and other Vector Borne Diseases in the state a State Level Task Force has been constituted. The departments whose involvement is required for checking the Dengue and other water borne diseases included Department of Local Government, Rural Development and Panchayats, Water Supply & Sanitation, Transport, Animal Husbandry, Medical Education and Research, Education, Labour and Indian Medical Education.Prominent amongst other who were present in the meeting included Mr. Amardeep Singh Cheema, Chairman, Punjab Health System Corporation, Mr. Satish Chandra, Addition Chief Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Mr. Amit Kumar, MD, NHM, Mr. Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Special Secretary, School Education, Mr. Karnesh Sharma, Director, Local Government, Mr. Jaskaran Singh, Director, Rural Development, Dr. Avneesh Kumar, Director Medical Education, Dr. Jaspal Kaur, Director, Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Jagpal Singh Bassi, Director, ESI, State Transport Commissioner, Dr. Jatinder Kansal, IMA Punjab.