Left stages walkout over dengue deaths, Congress stays put

Left parties in the West Bengal assembly today walked out after Speaker Biman Banerjee disallowed adjournment motions on dengue deaths in the state.

Leader of the opposition and CPI(M) member Surya Kant Mishra and Ajay De of Congress moved adjournment motions demanding a discussion on rising incidents of dengue deaths in the state and the government's failure to tackle it.

The speaker refused to admit it saying the matter was not that serious which needed a debate in the house.

Members of both the parties protested the speaker's decision and started shouting slogans.

The Left MLAs rushed to the well with placards in hand and a green mosquito net shouting slogans against the government.

Abdur Rezzak Mollah of CPI(M) sat in the well wrapped in the mosquito net while Left members went around him in circles for quite some time, after which they walked out of the house.

Later, Mishra told reporters that there were 49 dengue deaths in the state since its outbreak and thousands were affected, but the government was taking no action to assuage the situation.

Stating that this time dengue deaths were the highest in the state, he alleged that the government was not taking it seriously.

Mishra said even the Congress had said that patients were not getting beds in government hospitals and facing acute shortage of blood.

He said that the government was denying everything happening in the state including bird-flu, which it was allegedly trying to cover up.