Kolkata: A high-level sensitisation meeting with the NGOs before the mega campaign against dengue will be held at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters on Monday.
The meeting will be chaired by Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh. The KMC has invited 14 NGOs to take part in the awareness rally scheduled to be held on February 2. There will be 145 rallies in Kolkata, one in each Ward and the central one will be held at the KMC headquarters. Mayor Firhad Hakim will lead this rally. There will be people from all walks of life.
The NGOs taking part in the meeting on Monday include Ramakrishna Mission, Bharat Sevashram Sangha, Vivek, Forum of Durgatsav, Calcutta Rescue, Prerona and Medical Bank.
Senior civic officials said to combat dengue, cooperation of all sections of people is required. It may be recalled that the KMC had hosted competition among the Puja committees to create awareness against the vector-borne disease. The best Puja committee was given Rs 30,000 cash award while special cash award of Rs 5000 was given to a committee which was selected by the Mayor. Around 1,600 Puja committees who took part in the competition will now be part of the rally.
The KMC has successfully brought down the number of dengue cases in the city after sustained drives and campaigns. Due to climate change, there has been a perceptible change in the breeding season of mosquitoes. Instead of spraying mosquito repellents in the localities, the civic authorities are now trying to destroy the breeding grounds.
The civic officials regretted that despite round-the-year drives and campaigns, there are people who do not clean containers used to store water once a week or the flower vases which are potential mosquito breeding grounds. In many cases, the overhead tanks and underground reservoirs are kept uncovered too. Moreover, despite repeated requests people suffering from fever do not visit the dengue detection centres run by the KMC.