The State government remained insensitive till October 29 despite 30 deaths reported due to dengue, malaria, and diarrahoea since July in the district, senior TDP leader K. Kala Venkata Rao said on Sunday. Unofficial sources, however, put the figure over 100, said the TDP leader.
Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Venkata Rao said the casualties reported were so sudden that platelets dropped within two days after complaining fever.
The doctors too were clueless. The government reacted sharply in October and blamed private medical practitioners for its failure to act immediately. No medicine was available in PHCs.
Incidentally, there were inadequate number of doctors at the government hospital in Cheepurupalli, constituency represented by Minister and APCC president Botcha Satyanarayana. Fever cases were being referred to King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam, he alleged and expressed doubt whether the government was releasing the mandatory grant for medical care.
He said though the government sanctioned testing machines for dengue cases it ignored to oversee their functioning. While this being the situation, Health Minister D.L. Ravindra Reddy was more interested to cross swords with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy over the supply of inferior quality of rice to white ration card holders under Re-one-a-kg scheme.
After the term of local bodies ended, sanitation in villages deteriorated. Why Mr. Botcha Satyanarayana did never bothered to review the situation with officials, he said.
Condemning Mr. Satyanarayana's remarks against TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, Mr. Venkata Rao advised the APCC president to talk politely and maintain decorum. Party Polit Bureau member P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, party district president D. Jagadish, former Lok Sabha member D.V.G. Sankar Rao, and general secretary I. V. P.Raju were among those present.
