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Public Health / Sanitation

Kanpur Municipal Corporation fails to conduct fogging

Monday, 23 July 2012 11:24 administrator
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The Times of India                      23.07.2012

Kanpur Municipal Corporation fails to conduct fogging

TNN | Jul 23, 2012, 05.50AM IST
 
KANPUR: The rainy season is the time for spurt in the vector-borne diseases. Fogging is yet to be launched by Kanpur Municipal Corporation.
 


The claims of the civic body of launching fogging drives from the pre-monsoon season to its offset seem to be a mere eyewash. Residents of many localities said that they have not seen fogging machines in their area. The KMC workers allegedly conduct fogging in selected posh localities and VIP areas.
 


Very little has been done in the name of pre-monsoon preparedness this year.


"The fogging drives and assurances always remain confined to papers and rarely translated into action. The risk of vector-borne diseases remains there," said Sailesh, a resident of Kidwai Nagar.
 


Saurabh, a resident of Jajmau, said that the KMC officials need a loud alarm to awake from slumber. "Last year there were about a dozen cases of malaria and other vector-borne diseases in my area. Yet the civic authorities had failed to learn a lesson. Monsoon has started but not a single health official has checked the area," he lamented.
 


No pre-monsoon fogging was done in the low-lying areas like slums in Kacchi Madhaiya in Govind Nagar and in Machariya at Yashoda Nagar. There was no fogging in Shyam Nagar, Yashoda Nagar and Lal Bangla. All these area are the breeding ground for mosquitoes.
 


Additional chief medical officer (vector-borne diseases) said: "The changed weather conditions with mercury hovering between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius and high humidity (above 70%) are considered ideal for the growth of mosquitoes and the region is already witnessing that situation these days." Malaria, dengue and filaria usually spread in such conditions. The authorities should intensify fogging and anti-larval measures in the city.
 


KMC official Rajiv Shukla said that fogging could not be done as 'arsenate' (the fogging liquid) would not spread in the air. When his attention was drawn to the allegations that no pre-monsoon fogging has been done in various areas, he denied it and said that proper fogging drives were conducted before the arrival of monsoon.
 


According to healh department officials, fogging should be done in the long wet spells to curb the breeding of mosquitoes.

Last Updated on Monday, 23 July 2012 11:49
 

Urban Indians are physically quite inactive

Monday, 23 July 2012 11:13 administrator
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The Times of India                      23.07.2012

Urban Indians are physically quite inactive

, TNN | Jul 23, 2012, 10.09AM IST
 
MUMBAI: The average British national is reportedly among the most inactive person on this planet. This revelation was made by one of the most prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, last week. Indians have been praised by the same study for being among the least inactive people.
 


But should this be a cause for celebration? Hardly. The study seems to have looked at India as a whole; the rural-urban divide seems to have been blurred. The rural Indian who walks miles to get his ration or water supply or to consult a doctor has been considered alongside urban Indians who in comparison seems pampered with metro rail networks and corporate hospitals.
 


A study done in a school in Greater Mumbai shows why urban India should be as worried as Britain about physical inactivity. The study done by Dr Aashish Contractor of Asian Heart Hospital in Mumbai's Bandra area showed that while 14 per cent of the schoolchildren who were studied were overweight, most of them didn't walk enough. The study counted the number of steps that children would need to take as per their Body-Mass Index to be classified as physically active.
 


Dr Contractor's research showed that 88 per cent of the boys and 85 per cent of the girls in that school failed to take the 15,000 steps per day and 12,000 steps per day respectively needed of 12-year-olds.
 


This lack of physical activity leads to obesity among children and eventually leads to chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes or cardiac diseases. The Lancet study showed that 5 million people die due to physical inactivity every year. This is the same number of deaths caused by smoking. Urban Indians, who are as fond of their couch-seat in front of the television sets as they are of junk food, need to wake up to the stay-fit mantra.

Last Updated on Monday, 23 July 2012 11:54
 

Political intervention thwarts bid to check illegal slaughtering

Monday, 23 July 2012 07:33 administrator
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The Hindu               23.07.2012

Political intervention thwarts bid to check illegal slaughtering

N.J. Nair

: Frequent political intervention and poor inter-departmental cooperation are thwarting civic bodies’ efforts to check illegal slaughtering.

The Local Self-Government Department, on the basis of a High Court order issued on August 12, 2009, had promulgated a set of 17 guidelines on September 17, 2009, to close down unauthorised meat vending points and unlicensed slaughterhouses.

Directives

Local Self-Government Institutions (LSGIs) were directed to ensure that slaughtering was carried out only by licensed persons and roadside vending on temporary stalls was banned. All District Collectors, Revenue Divisional Officers and other officers, including the police, were asked to take steps to prevent cruelty to animals in transit and ascertain the source from where cattle were brought to prevent unregulated flow of animals with contagious disease to the State. This was also aimed at preventing the sale of meat unfit for human consumption in the State.

The LSGIs were told to establish clean and hygienic slaughterhouses and also explore the possibility of setting up common slaughterhouses for neighbourhood panchayats. A veterinary doctor’s advice should be sought for managing the abattoirs. The police should provide adequate support sought by the LSGIs to exercise their powers under the Municipality Act and the Panchayati Raj Act.

The verdict had specified that all corporations and municipalities should file a report to the court about the total number of cases registered and the fine levied for violations of law, including unauthorised slaughtering and meat vending. Official sources told The Hindu here that poor inter-departmental coordination and political intervention in favour of the offenders were the main impediments in preventing illegal slaughtering and sale of meat.

The requests of the LSGI officials for joint action against such units were not being taken seriously by the Revenue and police officials. Such requests were often shrugged off on the premise of lack of staff and other serious official preoccupations. Hence, the officials of the civic bodies were forced to remain silent or go on their own. Such attempts do not yield the desired results too.

Instances of prominent leaders of the ruling and Opposition combines coming to the rescue of those held by the civic officials for violating the rules too were aplenty.

 
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