Cabinet secretary P.K.
Cabinet secretary P.K. Sinha on Thursday reviewed the preparedness of dengue and chikungunya in a meeting of committee of secretaries of the Union government and representatives of the Delhi government and local bodies, including the New Delhi Municipal Corporation and Delhi municipal bodies.
With clear cut directions to accelerate action for prevention and management of dengue and chikungunya, Mr Sinha stressed on running public awareness progra-mmes, availability of medicines and doctors, helpline facilities to the people and use of mobile clinics.
According to a municipal commissioner, who attended the meeting, the Cabinet secretary clearly instructed that preventive measures should be taken on war- footing in this month.
“The Cabinet secretary directed that anti-larva measures should be intensified in Septe-mber as number of patients will increase manifold in absence of preventive measures. He directed to deploy additional manpower and machinery to check and prevent mosquito breeding,” he said.
As reported by this newspaper first, the increase in the number of cases of dengue and chikungunya has had the Cabinet secretary stepping in, who further instructed the officials for availability of proper testing facilities at hospitals.
The meeting was atte-nded by secretaries of department of health & family welfare, department of health resear-ch, department of Ayu-sh, department of pharmaceuticals, chief secretary of Delhi and senior officers from ministries of urban development, information and broadcasting, New Delhi Municipal Corpo-ration and the three minicipal corporations of Delhi.
“He has directed the three municipal commissioners of Delhi to intensify preventive measures to prevent outbreak of chikungunya. He also directed that the effort should be visible on the ground,” said a senior official.
