Jamshedpur, Oct. 18: Enraged over the civil surgeon’s alleged inability to curb the dengue menace in the steel city, district health officials today lodged a formal complaint against her with the additional district magistrate of East Singhbhum.

Health officials alleged that civil surgeon Dipali Dey had not been active enough in addressing the situation arising out of fever spreading in the city. Additional district magistrate Vijay Kishore Singh confirmed that district surveillance officer Swarn Singh and entomologist Satish Tripathy met him today and lodged a complaint against civil surgeon Dey for her “callous attitude” in tackling the spread of the disease.

Vijay Kishore Singh, who has been entrusted with the job of keeping tabs on the overall situation, told The Telegraph that the complaint was related to measures taken to check the spread of dengue, which has already claimed three lives in the city.

“From the feedback I received from various sources, I can say that the civil surgeon is not working sincerely. In fact, she has done nothing to create awareness among the people living in the outskirts of the city, where the maximum number of cases have been reported from,” Singh alleged.

He added that ever since the first dengue death was reported in the steel city, the civil surgeon’s office had been provided adequate funds to create awareness as well as spray pesticides in mosquito-breeding areas. “The civil surgeon could have printed posters and pamphlets for distribution in areas where civic amenities are nil. She could have also spread awareness through a public announcement system. But, she did nothing of the sort and the dengue menace is growing,” the additional district magistrate said.

He said that worried about the lack of initiative on the civil surgeon’s part, he organised several awareness programmes on his own, despite not having any funds earmarked for it.

As of today, the total number of suspected dengue cases in Jamshedpur stands at 260.

Sources in the health department said, fresh cases of dengue had been reported from suburban areas like Bagbera, Parsudih, Sundernagar, Jugsalai, Mango, Jawaharnagar and Azadnagar, where proper civic amenities do not exist.

When contacted, the civil surgeon denied all allegations and reiterated that the situation was not as alarming as the surveillance official and others were making it out to be. She added that there was no separate funds earmarked for tackling the disease.