A bitter exchange broke out between urban development minister Maheshwar Hazari and the BJP in the Assembly on Thursday over claims of fogging and rising number of dengue cases.
Hazari claimed fogging drive was regular in Patna, replying to a question by BJP's Jeewesh Kumar on Patna Municipal Corporation's (PMC) failure to carry out fogging. The MLA mocked the minister's answer, alleging rising dengue deaths. "The PMC shows a monthly expenditure of Rs 7 lakh for fogging. Yet, the PMC does not have technical malathion to fight dengue-causing Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. It uses plant malathion," Jeewesh retorted.
The minister stuck to his stand and said the quantity of plant malathion had been doubled, matching the technical malathion's effect. "I can provide a list of days when malathion was sprayed. We ensure the signatures of the ward commissioner and local residents," the minister said, strongly defending the role of the PMC commissioner.
However, the BJP MLA alleged that after Prakash Utsav was held in January, the PMC had not bothered to carry out fogging. He alleged financial scam in the name of flogging.
"All of us have stayed in Patna for the last 45 days. Why do mosquitoes breed in Patna in spite of regular fogging?" asked senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav. The minister lost his cool. "Were there no mosquitoes in Patna when you (Nand Kishore) were a minister? The Centre owes Bihar Rs 800 crore, ask the Centre to pay us the amount," Hazari retorted. Nand Kishore shot back: "Do you need the PM's intervention to combat mosquitoes in Patna? You are hiding your inefficiency," Yadav shot back.
Experts said fogging being carried out using plant malathion was ineffective in controlling dengue even if the amount of plant malathion was increased.
Shambhu Sharan Singh, district vector-borne disease control officer said: "The National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme says technical malathion has to be used to control the spread of dengue. Even if the amount of plant malathion is increased in fogging, it would yield no result."
PMC commissioner Abhishek Singh admitted in case of unavailability of technical malathion, the PMC used plant malathion .
"In case of unavailability of technical malathion, we use plant malathion in which there is 50 per cent concentration of technical malathion. We just double the amount of plant malathion in fogging so as to ensure effective fogging," said Abhishek.
District vector-borne disease control officer Shambhu Sharan Singh said though his office had deployed health educators in every PMC circle to guide officials on proper fogging, the civic officials used plant malathion while fogging. "They get technical malathion from us but they buy plant malathion from their side to conduct fogging," added Singh.
Singh claimed that his office had even provided PMC details from where they could source technical malathion from the local market. "But they have order in advance because they have to purchase in bulk."
Residents too claimed that measures to check the spread of dengue consistently fell short. "The question of effective fogging comes later. First, why does PMC start fogging only when the disease has spread?," said Reshma Prasad, a Kidwaipuri resident.
Putul Sinha, a Patel Nagar resident, however praised PMC for conducting fogging during Prakash Utsav in her area.
But district vector-borne disease control officer Shambhu S. Singh said no dengue death had been reported in Patna in two years.
