KOCHI:
Despite tall claims, the Kochi corporation has done precious little to
control the mosquito menace in the city which peaks during the
December-March period. While the failure to implement mosquito control
programmes has invited biting criticism from city residents, the civic
body has blamed shortage of manpower and fogging machines for the
crisis.

“People have been complaining to councillors about the
mosquito menace. But the local body has not released enough funds to buy
diesel, kerosene and petrol required for fogging. Though there has to
be two machines in one corporation circle, not even a single one is
available in some circles,” said Thevara councillor P R Ranish. The corporation has 22 circles and 74 divisions.

The mosquito menace reaches its peak during the December-March period,
which is considered ideal for breeding. The local body called off
large-scale fogging operations, stating that the residents were opposed
to it. Though the corporation council had asked officials to reintroduce
fogging, it has not materialized so far.

Responding to
criticism, health standing committee chairman T K Asharaf said the local
body would recruit daily wage workers to carry out fogging and related
activities. He calimed the civic body was focusing on controlling
mosquito breeding to bring down expenditure.

Meanwhile, the
corporation said they would start pre-monsoon cleaning on April 1. The
cleaning activities include desilting of drains, spraying and fogging.

Works committee chairperson Soumini Jain
said the civic body cannot start the activity before April. “If the
local body carries out cleaning earlier, we will be forced to repeat it
as waste and debris will get deposited again in areas we clear,” she
said.

The corporation has stopped pumping saline water into
drains following allegations regarding misappropriation of funds.
“Following audit objection, we discontinued such activities,” she said.

Kochi: Despite making tall claims, the Kochi corporation has done
little to control mosquito menace in the city, and the failure to
implement mosquito control programmes has invited biting criticism from
city residents. Shortage of manpower and insufficient number of fogging
machines have adversely hit the civic body’s programmes. Even though the
civic body has stated that they would provide power sprayers,
corporation councillors point out that such new equipment were not
available in many of the divisions.

“People have been
complaining to councillors on mosquito menace. But, the local body has
not released enough funds to procure diesel, kerosene and petrol
required for fogging. Though there has to be two machines in one
corporation circle, in some of the circles not even a single machine is
available,” said PR Ranish, councillor, Thevara. Kochi corporation has
22 circles and 74 divisions.

The mosquito menace in the city
reaches its peak during the December-March period, which is considered
to be the ideal time for its breeding. The local body had called off
large-scale fogging operations stating the residents were opposed to it
and they left the area when larvicides were used for fogging. Even
though the corporation council had earlier asked officials to
re-introduce the system to tackle the menace, it did not materialise.

Responding to criticism health standing committee chairman T K Asharaf
said the local body would recruit daily wage workers to carry out
fogging and related activities. He said that the civic body has been
focusing on curbing mosquito breeding grounds on would help to bring
down expenditure on mosquito control activities.