SC seeks Delhi government reply on steps for dengue, chikungunya

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Delhi government, seeking to know steps being taken by it to check mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and chikungunya in the national capital.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was present in the courtroom for another matter, told a division bench of Justice M.B. Lokur and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that if the Delhi government does not take the responsibility to maintain hygiene in the city, then the central government may step in to deal with the issue.

The court sought the Aam Aadmi Party government's response on a case it took up suo motu after parents of a seven-year-old boy, who died of dengue, jumped to their deaths from a building after allegedly being denied treatment to their son by five private hospitals

Laxmichandra and Babita Rout, both natives of Odisha, committed suicide last year in south Delhi's Lado Sarai after their only son Avinash died of suspected dengue.

Five hospitals including Max hospital in Saket, Moolchand Khairatiram Hospital in Lajpat Nagar, Aakash Hospital in Malviya Nagar, Saket City Hospital and Irene Hospital, Kalkaji, were issued show cause notices to explain why their registration be not cancelled for allegedly denying admission the boy for treatment.

Meanwhile, the bench also refused to entertain a PIL filed by a Delhi doctor Anil Mittal alleging utter indifference of the civic corporations towards garbage pile-up and outbreak of chikungunya, dengue and malaria in Delhi.

--IANS

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