Entomologist calls for policy allowing govts to acquire vacant lands

Kolkata: Entomologist Debashis Biswas has advocated framing a policy at the government level which will allow the government to acquire a vacant land if its owner does not develop on it within a period of time.

“It is a common practice among a section of people to purchase land and not take up any activity for years, hoping to sell it when the price goes up. We have come across many such vacant lands which have turned into a garbage dumping ground encouraging breeding of dengue (Aedes Aegypti) mosquitoes. When land remains vacant for a long duration, people of the neighbourhood tend to dump garbage there. The Centre-state should come up with a ruling which will allow the government to take possession of such vacant land,” Biswas, ex officio chief vector control officer of Kolkata Municipal Corporation said in a social media video post.

Biswas said rain water accumulates in non-perishable things made of plastic or thermocol dumped in such vacant plots and contributes to breeding of Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes. He urged the citizens to dump such items in vehicles of the Solid Waste Management department involved in door to door daily garbage collection.

With construction sites emerging as breeding ground for dengue mosquitoes, Biswas has appealed for using a knapsack sprayer machine for killing mosquito larvae. Presently, 60 people in the city are affected with dengue which is less than the corresponding figure of 82 last year.

The KMC has started intensive awareness activities among people to combat dengue.

Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh, who heads the Health department of KMC, started an administrative meeting on Tuesday at the borough level, involving the respective Borough chairman and ward councillors, Health department officials and all other concerned departments of KMC to review the departmental preparedness for dengue protection. Similar meetings will be held in each of the 16 boroughs and end with Borough V on June 7.