Indian Express 25.10.2010
Authorities still have no specific plans to check spread of dengue
Surbhi Khyati Tags : health, dengue Posted: Sun Oct 24 2010, 07:18 hrs
“We have no specific plans for preventing the spread of dengue in the city,” Anil Kumar Sagar, District Magistrate, told The Indian Express.
Earlier, the DM had announced that cleanliness drive in the city will begin from Monday. According to official data, 282 cases of dengue have been reported from Lucknow this year so far — a highest in the last seven years.
Incidentally, dengue is caused by mosquitoes which do not breed in dirty water. Health officials said construction sites become a breeding place for dengue mosquitoes apart from stagnant water in houses. As per the Health department, maximum number of cases of the disease in Lucknow have been reported from Gomti Nagar, Mahanagar and Indira Nagar, where cleanliness and sanitation are not as major a problem as in other parts of the city.
However, malaria, a disease which can be associated with lack of sanitation, has not spread in the city. According to a press release by the state’s Information department, of the 1206 samples tested for malaria since October 17, not a single positive case has been found.
Yet, maintaining that the main cause of spread of virus is garbage dumps and lack of sanitation, Sagar blamed the municipal corporation for not ensuring cleanliness in the city. “There was lack of supervision in maintaining cleanliness by the LMC in various areas of the city. In order to improve the supervision and assist the LMC, we have posted sector officers and zonal officers in the city,” said Sagar, while addressing the media persons on Saturday. Total 125 new sector officers have appointed for supervision in wards. Besides, the city has also been divided in six zones, with a zonal officer in each zone to supervise the sector officer, said Sagar.
The sector officers will be in-charge of garbage-lifting work as well as water testing in the areas where problems of polluted water persist. According to the DM, 150 areas in Lucknow have been listed as extremely dirty. “As per the norms, city should have more than 7,000 sanitation workers but there are are only 3200 sanitation workers. However, we plan to recruit 1000 new sanitation workers through agencies in a few days,” said Sagar. The new system will be implemented from Monday.
Meanwhile, as per the Information department release, Commissioner Prashant Trivedi, Municipal Commissioner SK Singh and Sagar, following the chief minister’s instructions, reviewed the sanitation work of the city on Saturday.
