Bengal only state not sharing dengue data with Centre: Union minister

Kolkata, Nov 11 (IANS) West Bengal is the only state which is not sharing any data or statistics on dengue with the Union government, Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar said on Friday.

"The portal of the Union health ministry on this count had been receiving feedback from all states except from West Bengal. Despite repeated requests, the West Bengal government has not shared any data on the number of dengue affected people in the state or even the number of related deaths. The state government should share the data with the Union government," the minister told mediapersons at the sidelines of the 16th Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Diseases and Nutrition.

Minister Pawar also said that the state government should share data with the Union government which is dedicated to direct and help all state governments in the country to control vector-borne diseases in the country. She also issued a latent caution to the West Bengal government that with requite information and data sharing it would not be possible for the Union government to extend further help in the matter.

On the occasion, the Union minister said that the West Bengal government should implement Ayushman Bharat Scheme, which the state government refused to implement in 2019 on grounds that the state government has already launched a similar health scheme, Swastha Sathi, on this count in 2016.

However, the state Parliamentary affairs and agriculture minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay claimed that it is not mandatory for the state government to share dengue data with the Union government. "If the Union government wants the data, we will surely share the same. But it is not mandatory for the state government to voluntarily share that data with the Union government," he said.

West Bengal's director of health services S. Niyogy said that due to some technical glitches in the related portal, the data shared by the state government on this count is getting uploaded late.