SC slams Delhi authorities over dengue, chikungunya

The Supreme Court on Thursday came down heavily on Delhi authorities over the poor handling of dengue and chikungunya cases, saying they have left people here to suffer.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Amitava Roy expressed disappointment over the outcome of a meeting convened on Wednesday by Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Najeeb Jung at the instance of the court on curbing vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya.

The court asked them to hold another meeting on Thursday evening to come up with effective steps to check the diseases and their recurrence and a contingency plan, saying the efforts should be “consultative, cooperative and collaborative”.

“We have gone through the minutes of the meeting held yesterday (Wednesday) and we are quite disappointed with the outcome,” the bench noted, while hearing a suo motu matter related to the suicide of the parents of a child who had died of dengue last year.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Delhi chief secretary, told the bench that the L-G would convene a meeting in which those officers who were directed to attend the meeting by the court in its October 4 order would be present. The bench also asked senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is an amicus curiae in the matter, to participate in the meeting and express his views on how to tackle the diseases.

The bench directed that the participants discuss the steps to be taken to prevent the problems faced by the people of Delhi. It fixed the matter for hearing on October 17.

The apex court had on October 4 directed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain to hold a meeting with Jung, along with other officers, to chalk out a strategy to the diseases.
DH News Service

Jung meets Kejri
Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met on Thursday evening and agreed to chalk out an action plan to check the rising number of chikungunya and dengue cases, DHNS reports from New Delhi. This was their second meeting in two days.