'State to come up with law to check 'indiscriminate' dumping of waste'

kolkata: The state government is all set to come up with an act to curb the indiscriminate dumping of coconut shells and other waste objects, in which water gets accumulated, said Mayor and state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister, Firhad Hakim, on Thursday. Such objects with stagnant water often emerge as breeding grounds for dengue germs-carrying mosquitoes.

"While holding awareness rallies on dengue, I have come across coconut shells strewn here and there. This is very dangerous as accumulated water in such shells encourage breeding of dengue mosquitoes. We should dump these in a particular place so that the conservancy workers can pick it up easily. We will bring an act to curb such tendency of dumping things like coconut shells here and there," state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister said after leading an awareness rally against dengue at ward 101 in Baishnabghata- Patuli area under Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Soon after the rally, Hakim chaired a virtual meeting with the chairmen of urban local bodies to take stock of the dengue situation.

Some of the municipality chairmen raised the issue of non-action on the part of owners of vacant land or properties in cleaning garbage even after being served with notices for not keeping their premises clean.Hakim said that such persons who remain indifferent to such notices should be dragged to municipal court.

He also instructed the councillors of the wards, where dengue cases are high to take to the streets and lead awareness campaigns against dengue.

The issue regarding delay by certain private laboratories in sharing data of dengue affected patients that have been jeopardising dengue drives was also raised at the meeting.

Some chairmen said that they had taken up such cases with the district administration so that dengue cases were notified at the earliest.

The minister advised that with the drop in temperature dengue cases are coming down, but emphasized on non complacency and continuing with awareness campaigns.