Hakim holds dengue awareness drive

Kolkata: State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim led a dengue awareness rally from Salt Lake City Centre I to the office of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and called for awareness among the common people as the main weapon to fight against the mosquito-borne disease.

"The citizens need to be vigilant to ensure that his residence's vicinity is kept clean. It is impossible for any civic body to check every nook and corner and identify breeding grounds for dengue mosquito. If a person sees that his/her neighbour dumps garbage or plastic cup or earthen container indiscriminately, he should ask him to abstain from such practice as a dengue mosquito does not discriminate between me or you when it bites and causes disease," Hakim said.

Referring to the recent bizarre incident in a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh where mosambi juice was administered to a dengue patient in a hospital instead of platelets following which the patient died after the erroneous transfusion, the Mayor demanded the resignation of the UP Chief Minister.

BMC Mayor Krishna Chakraborty, Deputy Mayor Tapas Chatterjee, state Forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick, who is a resident of Salt Lake and councilors of BMC attended the rally.

Aditi Munshi, MLA from Rajarhat – Gopalpur constituency had arranged protective jackets for 4,000 conservancy workers which were handed over during the occasion.

Meanwhile, Debasish Banerjee, councilor of ward 15 under South Dum Dum municipality has announced a prize for those who will inform him about dengue mosquitoes' breeding grounds.