24 die of Dengue in 7-8 months : Bengal

Kolkata, Oct 12 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said as many as 24 people died due to dengue in the state in the last seven to eight months.

"In the last 7-8 months as many as 30 people died due to dengue in West Bengal. Of them, 14 died in the very recent months... some are not verified and so the death toll would be 24. But we feel even death of one person is bad," she told reporters.

A high-level meeting was held at the State Secretariat with officials from various departments, including Health, Municipal Affairs, Panchayat and others, to take stock of the situation.

Banerjee said the Central government offices don't allow municipal corporations to clean their premises, nor do they clean the area themselves.

"I will appeal to them - be it BSF, CISF, Civil Aviation or Railways - that they should allow corporations to clean their premises," she said.

She also accused some private laboratories of misguiding patients and creating panic among them.