Opposition walks out over denial to discuss rise in fever

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition UDF staged a walkout in the Legislative Assembly after Speaker AN Shamseer refused permission for an adjournment motion to discuss the rise in communicable diseases.

The Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan blamed the government for the lack of coordination in addressing the public health challenge and poor pre-monsoon cleaning. He also refused to accept LSGD Minister MB Rajesh’s excuse for poor pre-monsoon cleaning on the model code of conduct by the Election Commission.

“The model code was only against convening meeting, which you could have done earlier in anticipation of the restrictions during an election year. The restriction is only for meetings, but not for cleaning activities. There should have been a coordination in the system to ensure preparedness,” said Satheesan.

He pointed out that the government has spent only 0.08% of Rs 12 crore allocated for tackling communicable diseases from the plan fund. He attributed it to the lack of seriousness on the part of the government.

The adjournment motion was moved by Kondotty MLA, TV Ibrahim, who complained that the Health Department was sleeping when the fever cases increased. Health Minister Veena George explained the steps taken by the department in tackling the communicable diseases and said that the situation has not gone out of control despite the state being an epidemiologically vulnerable one. She said that in-patient cases were less than half of the cases in 2015.