NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday admitted in the Lok Sabha that its efforts to end encephalitis were not getting the desired results as members voiced concern over the disease claiming lives of 1,495 people, mostly children, so far this year.
Replying on the Calling Attention Motion on encephalitis, Health Minister J P Nadda said he would visit all the five-six states where the disease was rampant and try to find a solution to the bottlenecks so that fund allotted to the states can be spent.
He also suggested that elected representatives like MPAs, MLAs and sarpanchs be included in the coordination committees to jointly oversee the rolling out of the government efforts.
The issue was raised by BJP MPs Yogi Adityanath and Jagdambika Pal.
Adityanath criticised the Centre saying that he had heard similar replies from all the Health Ministers in the past. Citing figures, Nadda said that five most affected states except Tamil Nadu had failed in spending Central fund.
Bihar and West Bengal have spent less than one per cent of the fund, Assam less than 10 per cent while UP has not even sent details, he said. Tamil Nadu has spent over 49 per cent of the fund. The total number of cases was 8,344 in 2012, and 7,825 in 2013 and 9,912 by December 17 this year and the number of deaths it caused was 1,256, 1,273 and 1,495 in the corresponding period.
Maximum reported numbers of cases - 3,291 - this year were from Uttar Pradesh followed by 2,317 in West Bengal, 2,194 in Assam and 866 in Bihar.