Dengue cases being reported from places like Salt Lake, Bangur, Lake Town, Dum Dum and Baguiati have spiked over the past one week.
Residents of several wards falling under Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) that has 41 wards have tested positive for dengue.
The areas under BMC, which comprise Salt Lake, Baguiati and Rajarhat, had recorded 155 dengue cases in October, officials of the civic body said.
However, since then the number of dengue cases have increased alarmingly, said an official. According to figures provided by the civic body, at least 290 persons have tested positive in November till Monday.
A pool of water at the base of a defunct fountain near Central Park in Salt Lake.
Sanat Kr SinhaA BMC official said most of the cases had been reported from ward numbers 8,9, 29 and 32. Wards 6, 18, 19 and 31 too are badly affected with dengue, the official added. These wards include places like Baguiati, Kestopur, Arjunpur, Rajarhat as well as Salt Lake.
All 35 wards of South Dum Dum municipality too are witnessing a spike in dengue cases, an official of the municipality said.
The situation is similar in areas falling under the North Dum Dum municipality as well.
Several residents told The Telegraph that there was negligence on the part of the civic bodies and alleged that conservancy teams were not carrying out cleaning up drives because of which garbage was piling up where pools of stagnant water had formed.
“Neither vector control teams are visiting nor the municipal teams are clearing up the garbage regularly,” said Saugata Ghosh, who stays in Nagerbazar, under North Dum Dum municipality.
The dengue causing Aedes Aegypti mosquito can breed in even a coin-sized blob of water.
An official of the municipality said they would step up the anti-mosquito drive.
The canal adjacent VIP Road in Lake Town.
Sanat Kr SinhaHealth department officials said intensive intervention by entering houses and apartments was the need of the hour.
Pranay Kumar Ray, a member of the BMC's board of administrators, said they had formed six dengue rapid response teams each headed by an assistant engineer.
“We are visiting four wards everyday and spraying larvicide as well as cleaning up empty plots of garbage as well as heaps of rubbish,” said Ray.
According to him, the civic body has also started a door-to-door survey as well as a clean up drive across all 41 wards.
Another official said irrespective of the fact that people were using mosquito repellents, the need of the hour was to put up mosquito nets in order to minimise the risk of getting affected by dengue.
