Days after a child was infected with dengue and scrub typhus in ward 37 under the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), the BJP has raised questions on the role of the civic body in combating vector-borne diseases.
Four-year-old Keshab Das, a resident of South Santinagar area at Binay More, is undergoing treatment in the paediatric ward of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital.
“Dengue cases were reported in Siliguri even before the arrival of the monsoon season. I am wondering what the civic body is doing. They ran the board of administrators of the corporation earlier and now they are at the helm of the board. The civic services in the town have collapsed,” said Siliguri MLA Shankar Ghosh.
Mr Ghosh and BJP’s Dabgram-Fulbari MLA Sikha Chatterjee visited the area and interacted with the local residents there today.
“We wish for speedy recovery of the child. The area is not cleaned properly, and garbage has piled up. There is no place to dump the garbage. The corporation is not taking steps. In such conditions, the emergence of dengue is nothing unnatural,” Mrs Chatterjee said.
The SMC is carrying out a fever survey in the area following the detection of the case. Sources at the health department have said that one fever case had been found during the survey so far.
“The survey is going on for the past two days. Around 100 houses have been covered, with one fever case detected,” the sources said.