Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], June 20 : Odisha Congress President Bhakta Charan Das on Friday strongly criticised the state government over its handling of the Gopalpur gangrape case and the cholera outbreak, alleging that both issues reflect a complete administrative failure.
Speaking to ANI, Das said, "Crimes against women have spread like a pandemic in Odisha." He linked the increase in sexual crimes to poor governance and a lack of seriousness in addressing women's safety.
Referring to the recent gangrape incident in Gopalpur, Das accused the state government of inaction and insensitivity. He stated that the rise in such crimes showed how unsafe the state had become for women and girls.
In a separate but equally concerning issue, Das also spoke about the cholera outbreak, which he said had spread to 11 districts, infected over 2,000 people, and caused 17 deaths. He blamed water pollution and poor sanitation as the root causes of the outbreak.
"Cholera has spread to 11 districts, affected more than 2000 people and resulted in the death of 17 people... Even today, clean drinking water is not available in the state. This is happening due to water pollution and contamination," Das said.
He further alleged that the Odisha government had failed to act decisively on both the issues. "The government is not paying attention to any of these two issues - spread of cholera and rapes," he added.
On Wednesday, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department of Odisha, Aswathy S, said that cholera has so far been detected only in Jaipur district and has not spread to other areas such as Puri.
She informed that every reported cholera or diarrhoea death is being audited by a team of doctors.
Speaking to reporters, Aswathy S said, "Every reported cholera or diarrhoea death is being audited by a team of doctors... The outbreak hasn't spread to Puri... The cholera test has been found positive in Jaipur, not in other districts yet."
She added, "On Tuesday, we had an inpatient new admission of approximately 300. We have requested the hospitals not to discharge even minor cases for at least 24 hours... Today(Wednesday), the number of inpatients has not gone up. The new admission happens to be almost the same as yesterday."
"The good thing is that we see only mild cases, which means people are not waiting for it to become serious... So far, we have information about 10 cases that have been audited. Two more cases are being audited. Three reported deaths were found not to be caused by the outbreak," She further said.