Mamata Banerjee blames Centre for outspread of encephalitis in Bengal

New Delhi/Kolkata, Aug 5:

Chief Minister

on Monday blamed the Centre for the outspread of encephalitis in the state. According to a report published in Bengali daily

, Banerjee told Union Health Minister

that the Centre did not warn Bengal even after the disease broke out in Assam. According to the chief minister, the centre didn't monitor the situation in Assam either and slowly Bengal also came under its grip.

Banerjee accused the Centre of not alerting encephalitis affected Assam

The deadly disease has claimed many lives in Bengal and the state administration is struggling to deal with the situation. The state government has already accused Harsh Vardhan of not visiting Bengal to take stock of the situation. The latter has countered the allegation by saying that he had written to the chief minister of Bengal last month about his plan to visit the affected areas of the state and also the capital but he did not get any reply, the report said.

The Centre and the state government have also presented different versions about the casualty figures in Bengal. While the state government said only 90 have died so far, the figure is 239 according to the central report, the Ei Samay report said.

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