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Local councillor Anita Mondal supervises the sprinkling of bleaching powder in BG Block. (Saradindu Chaudhury) (Right) The August 24 cover story that reported the dengue outbreak in the block |
On September 2, local councillor Anita Mondal hit the streets of BG Block supervising municipal workers as they sprinkled bleaching powder around the block.
In the article “Sting attack” published on August 24, The Telegraph Salt Lake had reported that BG Block alone had 25 dengue patients this season. “Two days after the story was published, workers came and started clearing up accumulated garbage in the block. On September 2, they came with bleaching powder,” says secretary of BG Block Residents’ Association Ananta Chaudhury.
The article mentioned that BG 136, an empty plot, had grown into a jungle and was possibly breeding mosquitoes. With the civic body taking no initiative to clean it, residents had got it cleaned it themselves. “But the civic body was demanding an exorbitant Rs 2,400 to send two trucks to ferry away the dump,” says Chaudhury. “Two days after the story was published they send two trucks and we got a 50 per cent discount on the charge. Most of the garbage has been cleaned up now.”
Civic workers also sprinkled bleaching powder on the main roads around the block and some bylanes. But residents feel the effort is too little too late. “First, there are no traces of bleaching powder outside my house. And second, they should’ve started this drive at least a month back,” says Partha Ghosh, whose wife spent five days in hospital in August. “When they know mosquitoes are a problem in monsoon, they should’ve taken precautions before dengue reached epidemic proportions. So many people would have been spared.”
Two more dengue cases have been reported from BG Block since the article was published.
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