Bhubaneswar: Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulaste saturday blamed the Odisha government for the spread of dengue in the state.

“The present dengue situation is only due to the state government’s failure to take precautionary measures against the disease which spreads during monsoon,” he told reporters after visiting patients at SCB medical College Hospital in Cuttack.

“This is a state subject. The state government should have taken precautionary measures to avoid such an outbreak.

It should take care of the situation now and do the needful to address the issue. Somewhere or other it has failed to tackle it,” Kulaste said.

The Center was, however, ready to provide all assistance as and when the state needed it and would soon announce a central team that would inspect the ground conditions here, the Union minister said.

The ruling BJD, on the other hand urged Kulaste to speak to BJP workers who are allegedly not letting the state Health minister to visit areas affected after the attack on Union ministers Santosh Gangwar and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s convoy on June 24 during their visit to Bargarh.

“We welcome the central team and help from the center.

However, Kulaste should speak to his party members and remind them not to show black flags to Odisha Health minister and create obstructions in his work when he tours the affected areas,” said BJD Spokesperson Sashi Bhusan Behera.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary A P Padhi reviewed the dengue situation and interacted with district collectors through video conferencing during the day.

More than 1,100 people have been affected with the disease, he added.