Anti-dengue drive: Councillors of all 144 wards hold rally

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Saturday provided a further boost to its awareness campaign against mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and malaria with councillors from all the 144 wards in the city hosting a rally in their respective wards to deliver the message that citizens’ awareness is the main weapon to fight against dengue.

“We have all tried to involve local clubs, social organisations and the eminent faces in the wards in our rally in adherence to an appeal made by Mayor Firhad Hakim to do so. Besides them, the health workers, the solid waste management workers have also taken part in the rally,” Atin Ghosh, Deputy Mayor who heads the Health department of KMC said.

Hakim led a dengue awareness rally in ward 82 in Chetla while Ghosh did the same in ward no. 11 in the Hatibagan area in North Kolkata.

The KMC has provided financial assistance to every councillor and has also supplied materials related to awareness against dengue for the smooth conduct of the rallies.

The Health department of KMC from March has started an awareness campaign against dengue and twice a week public awareness campaign is being held in all wards. In many of these programmes, councillors have been taking a leading role. Analysis of dengue cases for the last few years has revealed that South Kolkata has been witnessing more dengue-positive cases than North.

This is due to the southern part having many under-construction buildings, open drains, ponds, wells etcetera that have been found to be emerging as breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes.