The Times of India               25.10.2010

`LMC not solely responsible for health menace'

LUCKNOW: The menace of diseases might be raising its ugly head, but that has not deterred authorities from playing a blame game.

Stung by criticism over the functioning of Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) that led to disease outbreak in some localities of the cities, municipal commissioner Shailesh Kumar Singh claimed that "LMC was not solely responsible for the menace''.

"Whatever is happening is not solely because of the corporation,'' Singh said at a press conference called at his camp office, a day after district administration decided to rope in officials from other departments to supervise municipal services in the state capital. The move had put a question mark over LMC functioning.

"It was me who sought assistance from other departments as the utility is too short of staff to deal with the crisis,'' he said. District magistrate A K Sagar had announced roping in of seven additional city magistrates and 125 sector officers in 110 sectors of the state capital to supervise the municipal services.

The municipal commissioner was particularly peeved with health department, which he said was trying to put the onus on the municipality. "Whatever DM said was nothing but briefing done by the district health authorities,'' he said. He said that from now on, LMC would be sending a day-to-day report of the municipal functioning to the DM.

On the instances of diseases that led to deaths of over 50 persons in the state capital within a span of two months, Singh said that none of them were a result of garbage. "They were not water-borne. It's a mystery fever which is causing the deaths,'' he said.

The municipal commissioner did not agree to the fact that dengue had been causing deaths in Khadra. It is not even malaria, he said. "Whatever instances of dengue have been reported are from the posh localities only, because it is there that fresh water stagnates,'' he said.

Statistics gathered by LMC said that the maximum number of dengue cases, 20 of them, have been reported from Gomtinagar. It is followed by Mahanagar and Aliganj -- from where 15 and 14 cases, respectively, have been reported.

He, however, admitted that cleanliness and proper disposal of garbage was still a challenge. Cleaning operations, he said, start at 7.00am and end by 2.00pm. Interestingly, municipal corporation had introduced the concept of night sweeping a few months back which, however, had to be shelved. "There were objections from the public,'' he said.