Dy Mayor to spearhead anti-dengue drive

Kolkata: Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh will lead the drives against dengue that will be launched on 21 February.

Ghosh said the teams of Kolkata Municipal Corporation will first visit the houses of patients who had been afflicted with dengue in 2018.

"We will inspect the house and its surroundings. We have prepared a list of 47 areas of which 20 are highly vulnerable and 20 are vulnerable. Not only the KMC staffs but also private agencies and NGOs are welcome to join our drives. To make dengue drives a success there should be cooperation between the civic staffs and common people," Ghosh said.

The KMC will carry out the drives in three phases. The first phase will start from February 21 and will continue till June. The second phase will start in July and continue till October while the third phase which will be a follow up phase will start in November and continue till December.

Continuous drives against dengue have helped the KMC to bring down the number of cases in 2018 to one third. It may be mentioned that KMC is successful in eradicating malignant malaria which had taken the form of an epidemic in the early 1990s by identifying the areas and then conducting the drives regularly.

The KMC team that is engaged in conducting drives comprise of health, building and solid waste management department officials and staffs. Ghosh said councilors would be invited to join the drives along with the Borough Committee chairman.

The KMC had launched a massive campaign to create awareness against Dengue on February 2 when 144 rallies had been taken out all over the city.

The central rally was taken out from the KMC headquarters and it was led by the Mayor Firhad Hakim. Through the rallies the civic authorities sought cooperation of the people. Ghosh said the campaign and rallies have proved to be very effective and KMC is going to follow this method. The KMC has 16 dengue testing laboratories where blood samples are tested free of cost.