More than 300 dengue cases have been reported from across the 41 wards of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation between Sunday and Wednesday.
Of these, more than 189 fresh cases have been reported from the 14 wards of Salt Lake alone, said a senior official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s health department.
While Duttabad — a series of tenements that borders Salt Lake along the EM Bypass — remains a hotbed for dengue, several cases have also been reported from adjoining areas including Labony, EC Block, Vidyasagar Abasan and Purbachal housing complex.
Between the last two Sundays, the total number of fresh cases reported from all the wards stood at 245. The week before, the figure hovered around the 306 mark. So the total number of cases over the past three weeks or so would be nearly 900.
Apart from Duttabad, the maximum number of cluster infections is being reported from blocks along the Kestopur canal and the Eastern Drainage Canal. The blocks along Kestopur canal from where fresh cases are being reported almost every day include AE, BE, CE, SA, BH, AH and AG blocks.
“Besides these places, a high number of dengue cases is being reported from ED, EE, DL, IC and KB-KC blocks, which are close to the Eastern Drainage Canal,” a BMC official said.
Outside Salt Lake, infection clusters are being regularly reported across Chinar Park, Kaikhali, Arjunpur and Teghoria, where several households have multiple family members down with the mosquito-borne disease.
Krishna Chakraborty, the mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said that the onus of preventing the spread of dengue did not lie on the civic body alone but on the residents as well.
“Our teams are regularly coming across stagnant pools of fresh water inside garages, rooftops and flowerpots. We have been repeatedly asking residents to ensure that there is no freshwater accumulation inside or near their houses. While some are responsive, many don’t heed our warnings. We have launched a larvicide drive and will also campaign extensively on all Durga puja days to raise awareness among people,” said Chakraborty.
Several residents however told The Telegraph Salt Lake that visits by civic health workers were few and far between.
“To date, we have not spotted a single vector control team in our block. We are thinking of launching a drive ourselves to spray larvicide as dengue cases are on a steep rise in our block,” said Soham Chakraborty, a resident of Karunamoyee Housing Estate in ED Block.
