BJP Protests In Bengal Assembly, Demands Mamata Banerjee's Statement On Adenovirus Deaths

BJP accused the Bengal government of not doing enough to check the spread of adenovirus.

Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Thursday demanded a statement from the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the state assembly on the recent deaths caused by the infection. The saffron party accused the Bengal government of not doing enough to check the spread of adenovirus. The BJP parliamentary party presented an adjournment motion seeking a discussion on the Adenovirus scare near the end of the first half of the assembly session, but speaker Biman Banerjee refused to allow it, causing the party members to mount a protest in the House. The House was then adjourned for recess by the speaker.

"We wanted a discussion in the House on Adenovirus. It was not allowed, and so we had to resort to protests. The state had been trying to hide facts and figures about the number of cases and deaths," LoP Suvendu Adhikari said while talking to reporters.

The CM had on Monday said in the assembly that six children died in the state due to Adenovirus, and urged people to start using face masks again to combat the menace.
Reacting to BJP's protest in the assembly, junior state health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the opposition party has made it a 'habit' of skipping CM's speech and then cribbing over the same issue.

"Whenever the chief minister delivers a speech in the house, the opposition makes it a point to remain absent, and then seek a statement. Why is the opposition party of our state behaving so irresponsibly?" she added.

Adding further panic over the adenovirus spread in West Bengal, deaths of three more children, admitted to two hospitals in Kolkata with related symptoms, have been reported during the last 24 hours, news agency IANS reported on Wednesday.

Of the three fresh deaths, two have been reported from Calcutta Medical College & Hospital and one from B.C Roy Childrens` Hospital. Though the state Health Department has stopped issuing any bulletin on virus related deaths, there are claims of 48 deaths during the last 11 days.

So far there is no approved medicine or any specific line of treatment of adenovirus, which can spread through skin contact, by air through coughing and sneezing, and through an infected person`s stools.