The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has taken up comprehensive measures to combat the spread of Dengue and sought cooperation of people to check spread of the disease. The health department of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has stopped the age old practice of fogging in Dengue prevention.
The initiative to stop fogging was taken by the deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh in 2019-19 and stressed upon source reduction by involving all concerned. Debashis Biswas, OSD and Chief Vector Control officer of KMC in an article published in an international journal called International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research has discussed at length the futility of fogging. However, in most of the states in the country fogging is still used to prevent mosquito borne diseases.
The KMC has prepared a year-long plan to combat spread of Dengue involving various state and central government departments. These departments are CPWD, Railways, PWD, state Irrigation and Waterways department, Sewerage and Drainage department, West Bengal Transport Corporation, Police, Army, Post and Telegraph among others. Teams comprising officials and employees of the above mentioned departments visit government establishments both run by the state government and central government and if mosquito larvae is found notices are given to the offices requesting them to take measures to destroy the mosquito breeding ground.
The civic authorities have requested the authorities of institutional buildings to remove broken furniture from the roof tops and not to throw used plastic tea cups in the open as they are potential grounds for the breeding of mosquitoes. KMC teams are visiting every household and apartments to see whether garbage inside the campus is cleared regularly and whether the overhead tanks and underground reservoirs are properly covered. The KMC has served 3,000 notices on the house owners in case of individual houses and the committees managing the apartments where mosquito larvae was found. Fifty five cases have been registered against the errant house owners.
The Municipal Court can fine upto Rs 1 lakh on the errant house owners. Mr Biswas said public awareness is required to combat spread of the disease. He regretted that in many apartments, civic employees are not allowed to check whether the overhead water tank is properly covered or not. He hoped that all the Urban Local Bodies will stop fogging and go for destruction of larvae at source to combat spread of the disease.