Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Health Minister K Muraleedharan has rejected Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan's criticism over the state's handling of infectious diseases, saying official figures showed a decline in deaths from leptospirosis and dengue compared to the same period last year.
In a Facebook post on Monday night, Muraleedharan accused the former chief minister of spreading "fabricated claims" against the two-month-old UDF government and said "figures will provide the answer" to the allegations over the health sector.
Responding to Vijayan's allegations on infectious diseases, the minister said, "We do not wish to respond by citing the number of people who died during your tenure because every life is precious. However, since fictional narratives are being created, it is necessary to point out certain figures." He claimed that nearly 1,500 people in Kerala had died due to leptospirosis alone over the past five years under the previous government and said no serious study was carried out then to examine the reasons.
According to the minister, the situation has improved over the past two months.
"During the same period last year, the mortality rate for leptospirosis was 6.7 per cent. This year, it has come down to 5.3 per cent. Similarly, the dengue mortality rate has declined from six deaths per thousand patients last year to two this year," he said.
Muraleedharan attributed the improvement to the Health Department's interventions.
"This is also the result of the Health Department's interventions to strengthen preventive measures, detect patients early and ensure timely treatment," he said.
The minister also alleged that the previous LDF government failed to carry out pre-monsoon cleaning work in March and April and accused it of focusing on elections instead of coordinating departments for disease prevention.
Earlier, Vijayan had alleged that 150 people had died of infectious diseases in Kerala over the past two months, while 20 serious cases of alleged medical negligence had been reported from various districts.
He had also claimed that Shigella infections had increased more than tenfold compared to the past and alleged that appointments of doctors were being indefinitely delayed even as hospitals faced an acute shortage of medicines.
In his Facebook post, Muraleedharan also defended the government's stand on the distribution of packed meals (pothichoru) at hospitals, saying the issue was not about food distribution but about preventing the encroachment of government land.
He accused Vijayan of misrepresenting facts by claiming that the UDF government was banning packed meals for patients and their attenders.
Vijayan had questioned the rationale behind preventing the CPI(M)'s youth wing, the DYFI, from continuing its long-running free food distribution programme for patients and their attenders in government hospitals, describing it as a model voluntary initiative carried out without political discrimination.
"Distributing food is a noble activity, whoever undertakes it. However, if government land begins to be encroached upon in the name of food distribution, it cannot be accepted," Muraleedharan said.
He alleged that the opposition was raising the issue to protect those who had encroached upon hospital land.
"Your outcry that 'packed meals are being banned' and that 'the food of the poor is being taken away' is actually to protect the interests of land mafias encroaching upon hospital property," he said.
Referring to the Alappuzha Medical College, Muraleedharan claimed that the previous LDF government could not begin construction of a Critical Care Block because land meant for the project had been encroached upon.
He alleged that land occupied by Seva Bharati, a Sangh Parivar-linked organisation, in the name of food distribution was not cleared during the previous government's tenure and also referred to an alleged encroachment involving a DYFI-built shed near the medical college.
"Other organisations have now followed the example set by both of you. They too want land on the same terms. Can a democratic government accept such a demand?" he asked.
The minister said the government supported food distribution but would not allow it to become a reason for occupying public land.
