With the increase in rain in the city, residents in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area are in panic of dengue. Many of the residents said they are living in fear as the prevalence of the vector-borne disease is on the rise. While some blamed the civic body for not sufficient action during these times, others blamed fellow residents for not complying with the civic guidelines.

AE Part 2 resident and block secretary Tapas Kanti Sengupta said houses with- in his area have dengue patients. “In the lane next to mine there are five people who are affected. I’m clearing the water on my terrace but others may not be doing it on a regular basis. The corporation is also not spreading enough bleaching powder.”

He suggested a special drive during these months by the corporation can help and also build the moral confidence in the residents. He also professed punishment for people for greater impact,” he said. Karunamoyee K Block resident Tarun Samanta said there is a sense of panic among the residents after a few cases were reported in the K, L, M blocks. A BH block res- ident rued that repeated complaints to the councillor to clean up the area, park has not yielded much.

Meanwhile, a Ward 29 resident said she received an advi- sory in their WhatsApp group from the local councillor, who is also the mayor of BMC, on measures to take to avoid an outbreak. It read: “I request you not to allow water to accumulate on the roof of the garage, the roof of the house, and in any container inside the house and to clean the accumulated water…. we can prevent the outbreak of dengue.”

BMC also met with gov- ernment housing and office spaces to warn them. Mayor of BMC Krishna Chakraborty said, “People have to be careful. How many terraces can we survey?We are spraying oil, we are releasing guppy fish, advising people on the dos and don’ts. We are using drone surveillance in very congested areas like shanties. We have increased conservancy staff strength, organising swasthya kendras, health camps and also sending letters to the offenders. What is surprising is that the poor people are much more aware than the richer house-holds, who are negligent.

There is a huge floating population in our area, who are bringing in the disease here.”
Former IAS officer Dipak Rudra, a resident of CL block complained that the vacant plot behind his house has become a dump yard but the civic body is hardly seen doing anything about it.

BMC MMiC health Banibrata Banerjee said, “Yes, compared to last year, dengue cases are more and it was even predicted by the health experts. They had predicted that this will peak in the third year. This is the third year. We are doing our best to check it. Three set of teams are working overtime to prevent cases. We have been getting support from the Swathya Bhaban and SUDA.”

The area logged 573 cases in August and the total dengue cases in BMC area is 720.