Jaipur, Feb 26 (IANS) The swine flu epidemic continued to rage in Rajasthan with six more deaths reported Thursday taking the total death toll over the 250 mark since the start of this year, an official said.
"Six more deaths were reported across the state on Thursday. Total deaths reported till Thursday touched 251 from Jan 1 in the state," a medical and health department official told IANS.
Total positive cases as of Thursday evening were 5,262, out of which 2,039 are from Jaipur alone, the official said.
Jaipur also accounted for the maximum deaths at 51 followed by Ajmer at 29 and Jodhpur at 28.
Meanwhile, state assembly witnessed uproarious scenes Thursday as the opposition parties including the Congress demanded resignation of Medical and Health Minister Rajendra Rathore.
Congress legislators, while raising the issue of swine flu, demanded compensation of Rs.5 lakh each to the families of those who died due to the H1N1 virus.
The opposition also staged a walk out over the issue in the assembly.
Rathore, while making a statement, said that the state government is concerned and is doing all it can to stop the spread of the disease.
"The mortality rate in the state due to swine flu is about 4.7 percent, which is much lower than other states," he said.
The state government has so far distributed 32 lakh Tamiflu tablets across the state, he said.
"Besides allopathy, we have also taken help of homeopathy, unani and ayurvedic system of medicine for controlling the disease. We are also conducting door to door surveys and have distributed Tamiflu tablets to persons showing symptoms like swine flu in nearby 50 houses where a swine flu patient has been found," he said adding that test for swine flu has been made free in six government medical colleges, the desert research centre in Jodhpur and three private labs.
A high level task force on swine flu has also been set up to monitor the situation on daily basis, he added.
The Mumbai police Crime Branch is probing a complaint about alleged mafia threats to well-known industrialist Nusli Wadia related to a complaint filed against his son Ness by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, officials said here Wednesday.
Uttar Pradesh Governor B.L. Joshi resigned Tuesday, as the Narendra Modi government's apparent move to nudge some UPA-appointed governors to step down turned into a political confrontation, with the Congress terming the move "dictatorial" and "political vendetta".
As the situation in Iraq worsened, the Indian government called in the Iraqi envoy here to discuss ways of helping Indian nationals trapped in the affected areas of Mosul and Tikrit and also held a crisis management meeting.
Wide roads, greener parks, cleaner water bodies and more toilets figure in the urban development ministry's action plan to "beautify" Delhi, an official said Monday.
On June 16, 2013, there was unusually heavy rain in Uttarakhand. In the catchment area of the upper Ganga tributaries, rain water flooded the valleys, washing away huge rocks and trees with it, and caused a huge loss to life and property. More than 5,000 people were dead and missing in the state.
Bharat to Bhutan ties got a major fillip as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared his intent to expand "B2B" relations on his maiden visit abroad to the neighbouring Himalayan country with which India shares long-standing close and friendly ties.
