Malaria claims 52 lives in Jalpaiguri

Siliguri, June 28 (UNI) Malaria has claimed at least 52 lives in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, one of India's most malaria prone areas, in last two months, according to health department sources.

The sources said five people have died of the mosquito borne disease in the last 48 hours. The victims, residents of Alipurduar, have been identified as Jadu Karoar (30), Yaspina Oraon (70), Suman Chetri (35), Roni Swarnakar (32) and Binabandhe Das (15).

Besides, over 6,000 people, majority of them tribals, have been affected by the disease in Alipurduar and Buxaduar blocks of the district, the sources said.

The local people accused that the health department was not sincere and did not take preventive measures to stop the spread of the disease, said Larry Basu, Secretary, Alipurduar Sahar Abhibhabak Manch.

He said the health department was ''ill-equipped'' to handle such emergency, adding many residents of the area were in panic.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who was here last Sunday, had ordered necessary action to prevent spread of malaria.

However, the local administration was yet to take up any action regarding this, said Mr Basu. ''We would approach the President of India to seek his intervention in to the matter for some redressal,'' he added.

Chief medical officer of Jalpaiguri Bhusan Chakraborty, however, denied the charges and said that the health department had taken proper steps to prevent the spread of the disease.

''Steps were taken to determine the exact nature of the disease and at the same time preventive measures were initiated to restore health system in the affected areas,'' he said adding a team of 71 malaria experts will visit the affected areas soon.

RSP Leader and MP Joakim Buxla alleged that the district health department was either ignoring or not well-equipped to handle such emergency.

Most of the victims were tribals, who were too poor to go for medical treatment, they added.

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