The Hindu 20.09.2009
GHMC at the receiving end
Staff Reporter
HYDERABAD: An ‘awareness campaign’ on communicable diseases with participation from various residential welfare associations of the city left GHMC authorities fumbling for words.
It was a moment of embarrassment for officials when a member of the audience pointed out that the very hall where they were assembled, Indira Priyadarshini auditorium in Public Gardens, was teeming with mosquitoes.
A senior citizen from Uppal municipality walked on to the stage and told the audience how GHMC’s chief entomologist D. Narahari did not pay any heed to the complaints of water logging in their locality.
‘Mere lip-service’
He narrated how unable to bear the mosquito menace, colony residents were forced to take care of the problem themselves. “Meetings such as this are just lip service,” he observed.
The meeting was organised by GHMC in the wake of swine flu and dengue fever gripping the city. It sought to educate people on preventive measures to be taken and on the need for community participation through residential welfare organisations.
Several representatives of different areas under United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations (U-FERWAS) took advantage of the meeting to highlight problems they faced everyday.
Suggestions
Different suggestions such as keeping check on unhygienic eateries, tackling pig menace, spreading awareness through bill board campaigning and public address system and need for better coordination among different departments were put forth by the audience, which additional commissioner (Health and Sanitation) Aleem Basha promised to look into.
Earlier, Mr. Narahari urged people to keep a check on breeding of Aedes mosquito responsible for dengue fever and chikungunya by clearing their homes and surroundings of stagnant water, tyres, empty coconut shells, plastic waste and regular spraying of cracks in houses, earthenware, open drums, overhead tanks, ant traps, toilet flushes etc., at least once in a week. Authorities also requested people to allow sanitation workers inside their houses to go about their duties.
Chief Medical Officer of Health, GHMC Dr. M. Jayaram advised people against going to public places or even work, if they notice any symptoms of swine flu in their family.
He also suggested regular hand washing as the virus can survive only for two hours outside.
