Kolkata, June 21 (IANS) BJP’s Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, on Saturday, claimed that the rate of decline in the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in West Bengal is much lower than the national average.

According to Malviya, while the current national average on this count has declined to just 87 from the previous figure of 240, in the case of West Bengal, the decline rate has been pathetic, with the current figure standing at just 105 from the previous figure of 140.

“Under the Modi government, India has cut maternal deaths from 240 to just 87 -- a true feat of governance replicated across most states. But West Bengal remains the lone exception. In 20 years, Bengal’s Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) has dropped only marginally -- from 140 to a mere 105,” Malviya said in a statement on X.

In the statement, he also identified some reasons behind such a pathetic rate of decline on this count in West Bengal.

The BJP leader said, “Despite Mamata Banerjee’s tall claims of ‘super-speciality hospitals’ in every district and doubling the number of doctors and nurses, the reality tells a different story. No basic infrastructure to support childbirth in district and rural hospitals.”

That is why, Malviya added, “referral syndrome” gripped the rural healthcare services system in West Bengal, with 35 per cent of the senior professor posts and 30 per cent of the medical officer posts lying vacant and unfilled.

As a result, he said, junior doctors were forced to perform complex caesareans, which often led to tragic fatalities.

Malviya has also accused the Chief Minister, who is also in charge of the state health department as the minister, of following a flawed fiscal policy that led to the misappropriation of healthcare funds.

“A woman Chief Minister… A woman Health Minister… Yet Bengal’s mothers continue to bleed in silence. This government doesn’t stand on the pillars of development or welfare. It stands on the corpse of Bengal’s soul,” he said in the statement.

--IANS

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