HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to submit a concrete plan of action to tackle dengue and swine flu cases and to take effective steps to prevent mosquito menace, which is increasing rapidly nowadays.
The court came down heavily on the bureaucracy for its indifferent attitude in tackling the issues, despite several dengue cases being reported in the state and a new type of fever has been noticed.
“Why has the bureaucracy not anticipated these diseases which occur every year and not initiated steps to tackle them? To perform your duties, you require court orders. For the past three years, the court has been passing directions to bureaucrats to take necessary steps and provide medical facilities to deal with dengue and seasonal diseases,” the High Court questioned.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice T. Vinod Kumar was dealing with a PIL on strengthening the government hospitals so that better treatment was extended to patients suffering with swine flu, dengue, malaria and other seasonal diseases.
The court asked the government and authorities, instead of giving general statements as they were taking adequate steps and conducted review meetings with the higher officials, to show the measures taken in this regard and how effectively it worked out.
“On 24 October 2019, this court passed elaborate directions to tackle dengue, yet so far nothing seems to be implemented. You are just making statements that fogging was being done and all hospitals were equipped to treat the patients,” the bench commented.
The court further directed advocate general B.S. Prasad, amicus curiae appointed by the High Court Niranjan Reddy, and K. Pawan Kumar, counsel for the petitioner to submit brief notes giving suggestions.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) submitted to the court that as mosquitoes had become chemical-resistant, they were concentrating on eradication of larva by using drones and other mechanisms.
Pawan Kumar said though the GHMC had taken up drone survey to identify the places where dengue cases were more, it was not sufficient to curb the menace because dengue could flourish even in fresh water and further informed the court that this month, the state had recorded 3,200 cases of dengue and last month 2,500.
The case has been adjourned to September 29.
