LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to place before it the action plan to curb the menace of vector-borne diseases in the city.
It expressed deep anguish over the poor handling of patients suffering from vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya and viral fever in government-run hospitals in the state capital.
The Lucknow bench of the high court was especially concerned about the alleged lack of beds in government hospitals for treating such patients.
It also pulled up Municipal Corporation for its failure to control the spread of dengue due to poor sanitation and fogging.
The HC also commented on the media that it was under-reporting the dengue menace that has caught every other family in the city.
The bench of justices D K Upadhyay and Saurabh Srivastava directed the additional chief secretaries of medical and health services as well as the medical education department, the municipal commissioner and other departments concerned to lay before it the steps which are required to be taken to check the already widespread menace caused by vector-borne diseases in the city.
The bench has fixed the next hearing on Friday.
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"The counsel representing state, municipal corporation and other concerned departments shall be appropriately briefed as to what effective steps are being taken or have been taken by the state authorities and the Municipal authorities not only for prevention of the spread of such vector borne diseases but also for providing adequate medical facilities to the patients suffering from such diseases," the bench said.
Hearing a PIL on the issue, the bench further expressed concern with government authorities on the charges of bar association members who alleged that the government and civil machinery were lethargic in dealing with the situation while the condition is so grim even in the state-run hospitals that it is difficult, rather almost impossible, to get an appropriate hospital bed if a person needs the same.
The bench also directed the central government counsel to seek complete instructions from the highest authority of CGHS and Railway Hospital Administration in Lucknow as to the measures being taken by these authorities for the treatment of the patients who have been contracting vector-borne diseases.