Health Minister Urges CAG To Look Into Delay Of Funds To Fight Dengue

Health Minister Satyendar Jain has written to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) welcoming its move to scrutinize Delhi's handling of the dengue epidemic and also asked it to expand the ambit of its probe. Jain said that the state would extend full cooperation to the agency during the probe into dengue prevention measures and preparation in Delhi. However, he added, "There are multiple agencies providing medical facilities. Out of around 48,000 beds in hospitals, only 10,994 are provided by Delhi government. There were cases of patients being turned away from both central government and private hospitals. Along with Delhi government, NDMC and the three corporations, an audit should also be done of the Union health ministry to be comprehensive and result oriented for future." The minister has also asked CAG to audit preparedness of other states where death toll due to dengue was higher than what was reported in Delhi.

Delhi has reported more than 17 dengue deaths this season. "Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have reported higher dengue deaths than Delhi. On September 26, CAG would look into the adequacy of budget provisions and timely release of funds by the Centre/state governments and coordination between various agencies including reporting and monitoring mechanism. Till Sunday, there had been more than 4,000 confirmed cases of dengue and the health minister accepted that they did not have sufficient beds to accommodate the massive rush of patients.



Source-Medindia