The Times of India  11.08.2010

NEW DELHI: The number of dengue cases is rising at an alarming rate in the capital with 19 new cases reported Tuesday.

"Nineteen more people tested positive for dengue in Delhi today (Tuesday) but there were no deaths," Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) chief medical officer NK Yadav said.

The total number of people affected by the mosquito-borne disease in the city has reached 140 this year, the official added.

One dengue death has been reported in Delhi this year.

The Deccan Chronicle  11.08.2010

Aug. 10: While Bengaluru is slowly turning into a concrete jungle with high rises and large apartment blocks coming up in almost every locality, there are the odd vacant sites still strewn around. Although they offer precious lung space, some become a nuisance with time as the passersby use them as free urinals and the people in the neighbourhood and the BBMP's pourakarmikas themselves turn them into garbage dumps.

The problem is not confined to poor neighbourhoods but is also common in many posh localities of Bengaluru, where large mansion-like homes stand next to vacant sites full of garbage, making the lives of people in homes along the street, a living hell. Not only do they have to put up with the unbearable stench , but also the rodents and snakes that emerge from the garbage heaps that only grow with time.

The problem worsens during the monsoon, when water logging on the sites creates more of a mosquito menace than usual. A former president of Kumara Park Residents Welfare Association and member of Solid- Waste Management Round Table, Ramakanth, says the law clearly lays down that BBMP health officers must give notices to the owners of the sites in question to clear the garbage and do the job themselves if there is no response. They can later collect the cost of cleaning from the owners as part of their property tax, he explains. “However, the problem is that the law is not being enforced. In my locality there are so many vacant sites that are entirely neglected by the owners. When we go to the revenue department to find out who the owners are and where they can be contacted, the officials are of little help,” he complains.

Aramanenagar corporator D. Shivaprasad points out that not only do the heaps of garbage dumped on vacant sites give rise to diseases like malaria, dengue, chikungunya, and allergies, the lichet produced from the piles of garbage contaminates the underground water table making the water unfit for drinking.

“BBMP spends over Rs 200 crore annually on door to door collection of garbage and transportation to the dumping yards. But this is clearly a waste of money as the garbage does not seem to be reaching the dumping yards for scientific processing,” he observes, deploring that in many cases the pourakarmikas themselves dump garbage on vacant sites.But people too are to blame , in his view, as many homes use the vacant sites in their neigbhourhoods to dump garbage. “Unless the people join hands with the BBMP in keeping the city clean, the job cannot be done,” he stresses.