As the national capital reels under chikungunya, witnessing five deaths in the past three days, an all-out verbal war has broken out between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The former has accused the Delhi Government of negligence and pointed out towards the absence of its ministers,“The Chief Minister is busy outside Delhi, the Health Minister has returned from Goa, perhaps he had gone there for a vacation while Delhi is suffering from chikungunya. People are dying, the situation is worrisome but AAP ministers are on various foreign junkets,” said BJP leader Nalin Kohli.
Adding to the above he also referred to the reports of deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia being in Brazil admiring waterfalls while Delhi is battling the vector-borne outbreak, the BJP leader asserted, “They (AAP) are not concerned with serving the people of Delhi, but are only concerned with accusing and creating all kinds of excuses for their lack of governance and ensuring that they will break the law, do whatever they want and enjoy themselves at the expense of the public exchequer,” Kohli said.
Meanwhile, the Delhi government looks particularly keen on passing the buck to Centre, especially after the Delhi high court verdict fiving primacy to LG Najeeb Jung over affairs in Delhi. Addressing a press conference the health minister Satendar Jain said, “Two MCD mayors are out of Delhi, ask them why? Their only work is to ensure cleanliness. There are only 40 percent beds under the Delhi Government. We are not denying anyone a bed and have made all facilities available to deal with such cases.”
What was even more surprising was the fact that he completely denied the “outbreak” of chikungunya, and said “It has been created by you (media) by spreading panic.” He lashed out at the media and said that there has never been any death due to chikungunya in the world. “This is media created panic. Please don’t spread panic. Prove it medically (death due to chikungunya). Medically chikungunya can never be the cause of anyone’s death,” he said.
Delhi recorded its first case of chikungunya casualty with the death of a 65-year-old man, who succumbed to the vector-borne disease on Tuesday. According to reports, chikungunya cases in the national capital has sharply risen to over 1,000 this season, marking a jump of nearly 90% from its count last week.
