KMC ups ante in its drive against dengue, takes out rally

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) took out a colourful rally to create awareness against Dengue.

Mayor Firhad Hakim, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, Debashis Kumar, member, mayor in council (Parks), Shantanu Sen, MP, Pandit Ajay Chakraborty, Chandril Bhattacharya, Gurubax Singh took part in the rally. Senior officials of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department, Health department and the controlling officials of KMC along with members of different NGOs and Durga puja committees participated in the march.

The rally started from the Mayor's Gate and ended at College Square via Corporation Street, a stretch on Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Lenin Sarani , Raja Subodh Mullick Square, Nirmal Chandra Street and College

The theme of the rally was "Prevent Dengue, Stay aware from January to December."

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed all the civic bodies to take up drives to prevent the spread of dengue seriously. There were colourful posters, banners, tableaux, chau dance and club band in the rally.

The KMC is setting up a 100-bed hospital at Chetla to treat patients suffering from malaria and dengue exclusively, the only of its kind in the country.

The civic officials have chalked an elaborate plan to prevent the spread of dengue. The civic teams visit individual houses, institutional buildings, state and central government offices and housing complexes to ensure regular cleaning of garbage proper maintenance of the overhead water tanks and underground reservoirs.

The senior civic officials sought the cooperation of the residents.

"We organise rallies and distribute leaflets containing the dos and the don'ts but it is the duty of the residents to clean the containers used to store water and the flower vase at least once a week as the water serve as the breeding ground for the dengue bearing mosquitoes," said an official.