Kolkata Municipal Corporation to take help of sleuths to fight dengue

KOLKATA: Unable to enter city’s locked premises, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation will storm into these premises with the help of sleuths as part of its drive against dengue. This was decided by the civic top brass on Thursday after a meeting held at the KMC headquarters.
An amendment to the KMC Health Department Act will enable a civic health department special anti-dengue squad to break open the locks with the help of cops from local police stations and enter the locked premises.“We have already informed about a special drive against dengue to Kolkata police top brass. We need help from local cops in our efforts to zero in on these buildings or premises, which could be a potential dengue breeding ground this season,” said a KMC health department senior official.
According to a KMC health department officials, getting entry into locked premises was of utmost importance as some of these premises turn into breeding ground for dengue mosquitoes during monsoon.
“Our experience of dealing with locked buildings—both residential and commercial has been very bad during our campaign against dengue last year. Our team members looking over dengue prevention measures were at a loss when they saw dengue larvae freely breeding inside locked houses for want of cleanliness but could not do anything as they could not enter these locked houses,” said Atin Ghosh, member, mayor-in-council overseeing the KMC health department.
A senior official in the KMC health department conceded that one of the reasons for outbreak of dengue in some specific areas in south Kolkata and off EM Bypass last year could be attributed to the civic body’s failure to enter locked premises. Some of these areas in the south include Behala, Golf Green, Bijoygarh, Jadavpur, Lake Gardens, Anwar Shah Road, Patuli. Among areas off EM Bypass Mukundapur, Madurdaha, VIP Bazar, Topsia figured in the high-risk zones as locked houses had posed a threat to dengue prevention.
A civic health official pointed out that a locked building at Patuli had become a major source of breeding ground for dengue larvae and actually led to an outbreak of the dreaded disease in the locality. Similarly, an abandoned site at Bijoygarh played a vital role in outbreak of dengue in Golf Green area. “Apart from residential houses, we also spotted some government offices, factories and commercial buildings, which had been lying locked and thus posed a dengue threat,” a KMC official said.