Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday blamed
the Centre for not releasing Rs 300 crore to check the spread
of Encephalitis, while rejecting Union Health Minister Ghulam
Nabi Azad's claim that lack of sanitation and proper drinking
water was hampering the battle against the disease.
"The state has done whatever it can from its limited
resources to check spread of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome
(AES). The state has sent Rs 300 crore proposal for providing
sanitation and proper drinking water in eastern UP but it has
not been accepted," a health department spokesman said here.
Reacting to media reports regarding Health Minister's
letter to state government, he said till date no such letter
was received by the government.
The spokesman said after 2007, the year when BSP government
came to power in the state, vaccination programme for children
up to 15 years was started due to which AES deaths declined
from 1042 in 2005 to 164 in 2011.
"As far as AES is concerned the Centre has neither
developed an vaccine nor gave any support to the state to
check the disease," he said.
In his letter, Azad has reportedly said the findings of
scientists from National Institute of Virology, Pune suggested
that AES, a water-borne disease, continued to prevail in
eastern UP as proper sanitation and drinking water were not
available to residents.
The letter said hand pumps for drinking water needed to be
replaced by pumps that get water from more than 70-ft below
ground surface where AES virus cannot reach.
The toll in the viral disease in eastern Uttar Pradesh has
climbed to 488 this year.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, October 30, 2011, 21:02