Twin dengue deaths in Kolkata make civic body wary

KOLKATA: Suspected

dengue

death of siblings on Monday at Bijoy Bose Street close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence has caught

Kolkata Municipal Corporation

authorities unaware of the lurking danger in the city.

Though as many as 23 deaths have so far been reported from Dum Dum, Baranagar,

Salt Lake

, Sreerampore, areas bordering Kolkata, the twin deaths in the city created a dengue scare among the

KMC

health department officials.

Though the civic bosses on Monday dismissed the possibility of a dengue connection in the siblings’ death, a section of the civic health department officials conceded that dengue could be the prime cause of the deaths as the area where the siblings lived is known as the dengue-prone zone in the civic body’s map.

Going a step ahead some civic health officials pointed out that the health top brass had undermined the dengue threat which was bound to spread in the city. “We could not gather proper information from large areas in south Kolkata. A section of health officials were instrumental in concealing actual figure. As a result the real picture did not emerge,” a civic official said. Atin Ghosh, the member, mayor-in-council however, did not admit that the twin deaths had anything to do with dengue.