A choked drain at Upper Bazar, Ranchi, is breeding mosquitoes, while a fogging machine (above) lies idle on RMC premises last week. Pictures by Hardeep Singh

A laggard civic body seems to have failed to take the sting out of Ranchi’s well-being.

Residents claim the population of mosquitoes is burgeoning by the hour, courtesy open drains and untreated garbage, but the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) is yet to launch its contingency plan to prevent vector-borne diseases.

Kantatoli, Lalpur, Tharpakhna, Kokar and Harmu are some of the breeding grounds left most vulnerable by an indifferent civic guardian.

“Over the past couple of months, the mosquito menace has almost doubled. To make matter worse, the RMC has conveniently forgotten about fogging. We have not seen civic workers with the machines for weeks,” said Umakant Mishra, a businessman who lives in Harmu Housing Colony.

Mishra was not the only one to complain that fogging was not being done in various pockets of the capital at regular intervals. “I have not seen fogging being done in our locality this year,” claimed Gladson Dungdung, a human rights activist in Kokar.

Sources said while private agency A2Z Waste Management Limited had been entrusted with the task of keeping the city clean, the RMC had retained the job of fogging.

The civic body owns four fogging machines — three small and one big — that are mounted on vans. These vehicles are expected to tour all the 55 wards of the capital — one ward in every 25 days — to keep mosquitoes at bay.

Allegations made by residents notwithstanding, civic officials claimed that they were following the fogging roster of 7pm to 9pm without fail.

“Liquid deltamethrin, which is a highly toxic insecticide, is used to create fog and kill mosquitoes. We have drawn up a list of localities that are vulnerable to the menace because of open drains and garbage, and are fogging these areas,” an RMC employee said.

Deputy chief executive officer of RMC Gopalji Tiwari seconded the official, but conceded that more needed to be done. “Our men regularly visit different areas of the city for fogging. But we feel that four machines are not enough to cover so many wards. We are planning to purchase four more machines to control the menace more effectively. These will come within the next two months,” he said.

The cost of a small fogging machine is Rs 10 lakh, while that of a bigger model can go up to Rs 18 lakh.