Jaipur, Sept 30: Rajasthan BJP president, Vasundhara Raje today charged that the "inefficiency" of the state government was responsible for break-out of malaria in western desert districts where she claimed the disease had taken about 200 lives. The state government abolished posts of Deputy Chief Medical and Health Officer (malaria) and Assistant Chief Medical and Health Officer (malaria) and left medical and health workers exclusively posted for dealing with malaria for multi-purpose jobs leaving no specialised machinery for tackling the disease, the state BJP chief said in a statement.

The government also failed in adopting proper preventive strategy and confined the spraying of DDT to restricted areas only this year, Raje said. The medical and health machinery was put on family planning jobs and given only 15 days to deal with malaria, she said.

When the disease started taking uncontrollable proportions, the state government, instead of rushing medical assistance to affected areas, sent senior IAS officers to districts, she added. Bureau Report