SDMC moves to prevent mosquito breeding

South Delhi Municipal Corporation has prosecuted the director of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Parvin Sinclair for his failure to prevent mosquito breeding on the campus at Aurobindo Marg. 

According to officers of SDMC’s health department, the concerned officers of NCERT are negligent towards cleanliness on the campus to prevent mosquito breeding. ‘The situation is pathetic. We have issued three challans to various officers of NCERT within a fortnight,’ said NK Yadav, municipal health officer (MHO) of SDMC. 

In the first case on 26 August, a junior engineer was served a challan. Sinclair was prosecuted on 1 September, while on 3 September another junior engineer was prosecuted. The corporation, in a drive against mosquito breeding, is prosecuting major establishments where the issue has not been addressed. 

According to the rules of issuing a challan, domestic breeding checkers issue fines Rs 400 in case of violations. The fine is submitted in the court of municipal magistrate. The corporation has issued challans to senior officers of several big government, public sector and private establishments which include DMRC and PWD. As per records of the corporation, mosquito breeding was noticed in over 60,000 houses and establishments out of which legal notices were issued to 41,000, among them 3,858 were prosecuted for repeated violation of advisory. The rest were freed after warning.

‘Dengue is a dangerous disease and public cooperation is must to tackle it. We are acting against big fishes because they show more negligence towards cleaning and have become shelter homes for mosquitoes,’ said Rajesh Gehlot, chairman of standing committee in SDMC.