Residents of many areas along VIP Road, including Baguiati and Ashwininagar, in northeast Kolkata complained of mosquito menace in their areas while a dengue awareness rally organised by the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) passed by.
More than 45 people have tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease in Baguiati, Ashwininagar and Kestopur in the past week, said officials of the civic body.
On Monday, senior officials of the BMC, including mayor Krishna Chakraborty and the mayoral council member in charge of health, Banibrata Banerjee, joined a rally organised by the civic body on how to prevent dengue.
The rally made its way through ward numbers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, which cover large parts of Baguiati, Kestopur and Ashwininagar.
The Telegraph spotted pools of stagnant freshwater as well as garbage dumped on the roadside in several places through which the rally passed.
Water accumulates in such garbage during the monsoon, creating conditions ideal for mosquitoes to breed.
The dengue-causing Aedes aegypti mosquito can breed in even a coin-sized blob of water.
As the rally was passing through Baguiati, residents walked up to the civic officials and told them that they were being forced to keep the doors and windows of their houses closed all day because of the mosquito menace and the looming fear of dengue.
The residents alleged negligence of the civic body and said lack of adequate cleanliness drive was responsible for the rising number of dengue cases.
“Let alone vector-control teams, municipal teams are not even clearing garbage regularly, because of which there are pools of stagnant water,” said Debojyoti Pal, who stays in a Baguiati apartment complex.
Parimal Maity, who owns two shops in Baguiati and stays in a two-storey house, said at least five of his neighbours had tested positive for dengue.
“We rarely find vector-control teams spraying larvicide in our areas. The visits are few and far between and our entire locality is reporting dengue cases,” said Maity.
Homemaker Shinjini Das asked civic officials to ensure that drains in the area are cleaned. “Stagnant water in the drains are ideal mosquito breeding sites. Civic teams have not cleared the drains for a long time,” said Das.
Mayor Krishna Chakraborty told the residents she would immediately despatch teams to clear up drains as well as spray larvicide in these places.
“We have been sending vector-control teams regularly. Based on the residents’ feedback, we will again focus on large-scale larvicide spraying and cleaning of drains,” said Chakraborty.
A civic official said health department staff was facing resistance from some residents when they tried entering their houses for clean-up drives.
“We will approach police if we face any resistance,” the official said.
