The Times of India     22.09.2010

PATNA: Even as dengue scare is fast spreading, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is fiddling. Or so it seems.

City doctors are worried. "There are two ways of curbing the menace. One, the government should undertake a massive awareness drive so as to prompt people to take precautionary measures. Two and more importantly, there should be extensive fogging in areas from where dengue cases have been reported," retired government doctor SN Dubey said and added less-density fogging should be done even in other areas of the city.

The worst hit are tens of hundreds of students staying in the city, far away from their parents, as they care a damn about precautionary measures. Quite a few doctors told TOI several students suffering from fever visited them for consultation and blood samples of some of them were sent for lab test.

Ask officials about fogging, and they make tall claims. "Fogging is done exclusively in the evening as that is the swarming time of mosquitoes," PMC's New Capital circle executive officer Shashank Shekhar Sinha said. According to him, only one fogging machine is at his disposal and, as such, only one ward is covered in a day. "We are also spraying bleaching powder and kerosene on stagnant waters," he said.

Sinha, however, looked the other way when asked how was it possible to urgently cover the 29 wards of the New Capital circle with only one fogging machine.

PMC mayor Afzal Imam sang a different tune: "We have three fogging machines functional with which extensive fogging is being done in areas falling under our jurisdiction."

Asked how was it possible to do that with only three machines, Imam said only fogging could not do wonders. "Much depends on the quality of bleaching powder and medicines," he said and added the health department also has a role to play to curb the menace.

Residents of Patna Saheb, Kankerbagh, Kurji, Rajendra Nagar and Mithapur rubbished the claims of Sinha and Imam on fogging. "I am a retired person and remain at home virtually 24X7. I am yet to see any fogging this year," said Surendra Jha of Kankerbagh.

There's a good news, however. The government has provided four additional fogging machines to the city civic body. "These machines would soon be used in the New Capital circle area," PMC senior executive Sudhir Kumar Sinha informed TOI.

Rain of late has been lashing the city quite often and water has stagnated at many places. Stagnant clean water is an ideal place for dengue mosquitoes, Dr B N Dinesh of Kurji said as he underlined the urgent need for fogging in the city.

Sadly, PMC as of now remains out of action, dengue deaths from places like Munger and Begusarai notwithstanding.