With a fear of dengue menace hovering over the city in the ongoing monsoons, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has undertaken the initiative of imparting training on vector control methods to the army. The civic body has initiated a two-day training programme at the vector control department of the KMC at Moulali. As informed by sources, the training programme is to be conducted today and tomorrow. Notably, the army is said to have 19 establishments in the city, including several pockets under the KMC.
According to sources in the civic body’s health department, if mosquitoes breed in one pocket belonging to the army, it could bring fears of infecting the residents living nearby. Also, if training is imparted to them, it would enable the army establishments to undertake steps of vector control and reduce vulnerability.
The army is said to have approached the civic body’s deputy mayor Atin Ghosh for training. As claimed by an official of the civic body, the infrastructure available with KMC is unparalleled. The army wanted to know the methods of vector control and had written to the health department of the municipal corporation. “Five doctors and 13 other staff of the health wings of the army are being imparted training on vector control methods.
The training includes methods of identifying the dengue mosquitoes, vulnerable breeding rounds, how to prevent breeding, techniques of killing the mosquitoes, doses required for the spray and so on,” informed the chief KMC entomologist Debashish Biswas.
“After the two-day programme, the trainees from the army would further teach the methods to others in their establishment. This would help them carry out the vector control initiatives on their own which would be beneficial to our fellow citizens living around their establishments,” added Mr Biswas.