TRICHY: People in Trichy
don’t have a good night these days as mosquito menace has become so
severe with the spread of unhygienic surroundings. Unabated breeding of
mosquitoes
continue in garbage heaps in residential areas in most areas of the
65-wards corporation. The trouble from mosquitoes have intensified after
the corporation reduced the intensity of the fogging operations as they
deemed dengue fever, which spread here a few months back, was reined in effectively.

When dengue cases were on the rise in the city, the corporation
intensified its dengue-control measures, including pressing into action
sanitary workers to ensure garbage-free residential areas. The civic
body, in fact, doesn’t have adequate number of sanitary workers to
maintain cleanliness on a prolonged basis.

The corporation had
reduced the frequency of fogging operations through vehicles and fogging
machines in the past one month, leading to uncontrolled mosquito
breeding in and around the city. S Hussain, a resident of Beema Nagar,
said “I can’t explain our problem. We can’t have proper sleep in the
night due to mosquitoes. Nowadays, there is no fogging operation in our
area which is situated near the Uyyakondan canal, a major breeding point
for mosquitoes, we are facing untold miseries.”

Meanwhile, it
is back to square one on the hygiene front as some streets in wards 21
and 22 remain unsuitable to live in due to unhygienic conditions. . P
Anantha Krishnan, a resident of ward 22, is disappointed after his
repeated pleas to ward councillor and the corporation administration to
clean up the garbage fell on deaf ears. “The residents in our area lost
our sleep for more than a month because of mosquito menace. Our children
are vulnerable to diseases. Moreover, we have to bear the stink
emanating from the garbage. Though we represented to corporation,
garbage was not removed,” Krishnan said.

The Trichy corporation
recently decided to increase the number of sanitary workers. On
February 27, it passed a resolution giving nod to recruit 421 sanitary
workers on contract basis. Corporation commissioner V P Thandapani told
ToI, “The tender for selecting private firm will be floated shortly.
Then we would recruit more sanitary workers for our city.”

The
civic officials confront the insanitary conditions in the perspective of
diseases only, forgetting that provision of clean public areas is also a
necessity. They say that the mosquitoes would not cause dengue, but may
cause diseases like malaria
and typhoid. Commenting on the issue, commissioner Thandapani, said,
“As we controlled the dengue, the fogging operation has come down. But
it will be intensified after reviewing the present situation.”