Dengue protests: Civic van set on fire

Kolkata: A furious mob hit the road in Garden Reach on Saturday morning and set a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) vehicle on fire at Paharpur Road in wake of the death of two persons — Rabin Pal and Kumar Vijay there reportedly due to dengue. From 7 am they came out in groups and blocked road triggering tension. When a Kolkata Municipal Corporation vehicle for garbage collection came to the area, they torched it during their demonstration.

Local residents alleged that the garbage is not collected by the civic body daily and the area is not cleaned despite the spread of the vector-borne disease. Later a strong police force was deployed.

The demonstration came to an end after few hours when the police allegedly lathicharged some of the protesters.

Meanwhile dengue claimed another life in the city as a pregnant woman from Tollygunge died due to dengue at a private hospital off EM Bypass.

Purnima Biswas, the victim, was nine months’ pregnant.

She was admitted to MR Bangur Hospital on October 28. Her blood test confirmed the virus of dengue in her, according to her family. As her condition deteriorated, she was shifted to a private hospital in Mukundapur area where she died.

At Deganga in North 24 Parganas local Trinamul Congress MLA Rahima Mondal faced angry protests by the villagers on Saturday afternoon when she went to visit the family of a dengue victim: Seema Kahar. Seema died at Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital.

The villagers were seen asking her purpose of the visit.

On October 23, the Bharatiya Janata Party had organised a rally  outside the health department in Kolkata, in order to protest against the Mamata Banerjee government for the mishandling of the increasing incidents of deaths due to dengue in the state.