Dengue count falls, courtesy KMC's sustained drives

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) authorities has substantially brought down the number of dengue cases due to sustained awareness campaigns and the year-long anti-larvae drive, claimed senior civic officials.

The KMC will conduct a major drive on February 2 where 145 rallies will be carried out in the wards to create awareness. The central rally will be organised at the KMC headquarters on S N Banerjee Road. The rally will be lead by Mayor Firhad Hakim and Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh. Various MLAs, representatives of various NGOs and important persons from different walks of life will be invited to join the rally.

The central rally will start from the KMC headquarters and will march

through the stretches on Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Lenin Sarani, and S N Banerjee

Road and will conclude at the KMC building. Fourteen NGOs will take part in

the rally and a meeting will be soon held with them.

In view of rising global warming, the mosquitoes changed their breeding season.

Accordingly, the KMC decided to carry out the anti-larvae drive throughout the year instead of just conducting drives after monsoons and is trying to destroy the larvae at source.

The KMC teams comprising Health department and solid waste management officials have been visiting state and Central government offices, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and even sites where new constructions are coming up. If garbage is found inside the premises, the KMC carries out cleaning operation and the owners or the heads of institutions have to bear the expense.

The number of dengue cases has come down to one third in 2018 against 2017, claimed the KMC officials. The civic authorities have set up 16 dengue detection centres in the city.

Senior civic officials said the residents have been requested to clean water containers at least once a week. For the success of anti-larvae drives, close cooperation between the residents and KMC is required, they maintained.