‘Govt, MCDS wasted money on sprays that didn’t work’

IN ITS first audit of the Aap-led Delhi government, tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Friday, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) slammed the state government and civic bodies for failing to contain the outbreak of dengue in the capital over the years.

From wasting funds on unapproved chemical sprays to unskilled and very few domestic breeding checkers to releasing advertisements after the epidemic, the report highlighted failings in the health and surveillance system.

“Despite witnessing outbreaks since 1967 and claiming that several steps were taken to contain it, the outbreaks continued,” observed the report, which took samples from January 2013 to December 2015 to assess if steps taken to contain dengue were effective or not.

In 2006, as many as 33 dengue deaths were reported followed by one to eight deaths over the next few years. But in 2015, the figures spiked and 60 deaths were reported.

The audit also assessed if sentinel surveillance hospitals were adequately prepared to handle influx of patients and if they adhered to GNCTD guidelines.

The audit found that there was an “absence of an epidemiological surveillance — a systematic collection, recording, analysis and interpretation and dissemination of data of a disease to zero-in on action”.

The report also pulled up the government for spending Rs 10.04 crore on dengue awareness campaigns during 2013-14 and 2015-16. The advertisements were released between September and November — after the outbreak — which defeated the objective, it said.