Bhubaneswar, Oct. 9: The BJP today came down heavily on the Odisha government for its failure to contain Japanese encephalitis, which has so far claimed the lives of 45 children in the tribal-dominated Malkangiri district.

The state unit of the BJP today raised the issue after its six-member fact-finding team visited the Malkangiri district and interacted with the tribals on October 7.

The party said that the killer disease has so far claimed more than 75 children, but efforts were being made to downplay the issue. The delegation included former ministers Surama Padhi and Pradipta Nayak, former MP Parsuram Majhi and party's general secretary Bhrugu Buxi Patra.

Addressing the media here, former minister Surama Padhi said: "The state government has utterly failed to provide basic medical needs to the local populace. Though the state government claimed that it has distributed more than 50,000 mosquito nets, only 3,000 people have got them."

She also alleged that the lack of doctors had affected the medical service in the state.

"The Malkangiri district should have at least 115 doctors, but at present only 52 are working there. It has adversely affected the health service there," she said.

Targeting the government on the issue, Padhi said that the state government has launched a campaign accusing the Centre of not providing vaccines for the immunisation drive.

Yesterday, the Centre had asked the state government not to go ahead with the immunisation programme as it might backfire.

According to the Union health ministry, undertaking the vaccination programme in the affected areas during infection period would be counter-productive.

Padhi said: "The disease was first reported in 2011. Let the government tell us why it did not wake up to the situation in the last 5 years and initiate steps to undertake immunisation drive? Now, the government is trying to shift the blame on the Centre for the outbreak of the disease."

The party also questioned chief minister Naveen Patnaik's five-day Delhi visit during Durga Puja.

"The chief minister has only one official programme in Delhi. He should not have visited Delhi when children are dying every day," said BJP's chief spokesperson Sajjan Sharma.

In the face of growing criticism, the Malkangiri district administration today suspended two health workers for dereliction of duties.

Malkangiri district collector K. Sudarsan Chakravarthy said free cooked food would be provided in the affected areas through 470 anganwadi centres. So far, the district administration has distributed 8,000 mosquito nets and the remaining nets would be distributed soon.

Teacher on call

The BJP today said the state government had changed name of the 'teacher-on-call' scheme to divert the attention from the larger issues of huge vacancies in the government and government-aided schools.

Sharma said: "The government has changed its name to 'guest teacher scheme' after Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan had equated it the Ola and Uber taxi service."

Sharma said the party's main objective was to highlight the deplorable education system in the state so that government would rise to the occasion and initiate some steps on this front.

"Nearly 13,977 posts are lying vacant at the high school level but the government is yet to appoint the trained BEd and certified teachers. Thousands of these trained youths are agitating on the streets demanding regular appointment."