Accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of not doing enough to check the spread of Adenovirus that left several children dead in West Bengal, the BJP on Thursday staged a protest in the state assembly.

The saffron party members also demanded a statement from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the deaths.

The BJP legislature party, towards the end of the first half of the assembly session, moved an adjournment motion demanding a discussion on the Adenovirus scare, but Speaker Biman Banerjee refused to admit it, prompting the saffron party legislators to stage a protest.

The speaker then adjourned the House for recess. The issue was not raised in the second half.

Talking to reporters, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said, "We wanted a discussion in the House on Adenovirus. It was not allowed, and so we had to resort to protests. The state had been trying to hide facts and figures about the number of cases and deaths." The CM had on Monday said in the assembly that six children died in the state due to Adenovirus and urged people to start using face masks again to combat the menace.

Reacting to BJP's protest in the assembly, junior state health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the opposition party has made it a "habit" of skipping the CM's speech and then cribbing over the same issue.

"Whenever the chief minister delivers a speech in the House, the opposition makes it a point to remain absent and then seek a statement. Why is the opposition party of our state behaving so irresponsibly?" she added.

TMC MP Santanu Sen, a doctor by profession, later told PTI that the state government is well equipped to tackle the menace of Adenovirus.

"The government of West Bengal had tackled the Covid-19 pandemic despite non-cooperation from the central government. In the same way, we can tackle adenovirus infection effectively," Sen said.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.