West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on 1 September convened a high-level inter-departmental meeting at Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department headquarters in Salt Lake, Kolkata, to finalise a coordinated strategy against the worsening dengue crisis gripping the state. The meeting, scheduled to begin at 5 pm, brought together ministers and senior bureaucrats from five departments to build a unified response framework.

Key Departments at the Table

The meeting was attended by top officials from the health, public works, panchayat affairs and rural development, municipal affairs and urban development, and irrigation departments. Nodal officers from 21 urban civic bodies across the state were also summoned. The state health department will serve as the nodal agency overseeing the entire exercise, which will function under the direct supervision of the Chief Minister's office.

Why a Multi-Department Approach

'The Chief Minister is of the opinion that although the primary task of combatting the crisis is of the state health department, the said department alone might not be able to combat the current crisis unless it works in coordination with the other four departments,' a senior officer from the state secretariat said. Cleanliness drives already under way in Kolkata and its urban suburbs are now being extended to rural belts, with the irrigation and panchayat affairs and rural development departments tasked to lead that push.

Structural Challenges Complicating the Response

Officials acknowledged significant operational hurdles. The boards of most urban civic bodies in the state are currently non-functional. Health workers who previously handled mosquito larvae control have been redeployed for the rollout of the Ayushman Bharat project, thinning frontline capacity. Doctors at health centres, already stretched, have been unable to give consistent attention to dengue-containment efforts — factors that have made the Chief Minister's personal intervention necessary, according to officials.

Five Districts on High Alert

The state health department has identified five districts as the most dengue-prone: Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, and Murshidabad. Continued weather unpredictability and erratic rainfall have aggravated conditions, with dengue cases and related deaths rising in several of these districts. The decision to hold the meeting at Swasthya Bhavan rather than the state secretariat at Nabanna was itself a signal of the health department's lead role in the response.

What Comes Next

The blueprint finalised at the meeting is expected to assign specific responsibilities to each department, with progress monitored directly by the Chief Minister's office. Whether the coordinated framework can overcome the current staffing and civic-body gaps will determine how quickly the state can bring the outbreak under control.