Kejriwal advises schools to educate students on dengue and pollution

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal advised schools to educate their children against dengue and pollution, under the '10 Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute' campaign against dengue at the Thyagaraja Stadium. The AAP-led government has prepared a kit for school children, which will be given to children through schools. Apart from this, the state government will also provide masks to children as part of its programme to tackle pollution.

Kejriwal said that he will interact with children on these issues on Tuesday, via video conference.

Addressing the principals and vice-principals of schools, the Delhi CM spoke of the importance of having a separate class allotted for dengue-chikungunya awareness.

He said, "Dengue-chikungunya makes the people of Delhi most unhappy in these two-three months. If we will not teach our children certain things about real life, then it means there is a lapse."

"As citizens of Delhi, we have to take all the steps so that we can tackle the outbreak of dengue and chikungunya. You are present in this programme as principal, vice principal, so your children should also be taught about dengue and chikungunya, they have to be made aware of them. As much as we teach our children the rest of the subject, we should also tell our children about dengue and chikungunya," the CM said.

Kejriwal went on to elaborate, "In 2015, there were 15,000 cases of dengue in Delhi...This year, experts had reported that dengue-chikungunya cases may increase and break the previous record. So we were afraid that this year the cases of dengue will increase considerably. So we designed the '10 Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute' campaign."

"Mosquito eggs take 7 to 10 days to become a mosquito. If we pour out the water stored in our house on the seventh day, then the eggs will not become mosquitoes. We have to check our house. It does not take more than 10 minutes to check. This mosquito does not fly more than 200 meters. This means if you are caught by dengue, then that mosquito has either originated in your home or neighbour's house or bred in nearby areas. If we check our house and tell the neighbour to check his or her house, I guarantee you that no one in your house can be affected by dengue. Most of these mosquitoes breed between September 1 to November 15. So we have to do 10 weeks of checking. You all have to make every child aware of this," added the Delhi CM.